NASA's 60th Anniversary: 60 Years of Innovation in 60 Seconds

This October, 2018, NASA is celebrating six decades of exploration, innovation, and scientific discoveries - making great advances in aviation and helping to develop a commercial space industry. Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 16, 1958, and President Eisenhower signed it into law on July 29, 1958. NASA opened for business on October 1, 1958, with T. Keith Glennan as the agency's first administrator. Read an in-depth overview, from the agency's beginnings to its spinoff technologies to what the future holds, at NASA  .

Transcript

00:00:00 (rock music) - [T. Keith Glennan] We have one of the most challenging assignments that has ever been given to modern man. Expansion of human knowledge about space. - [General John B. Medaris] We've been assigned the mission of launching a scientific Earth satellite. - [Man] Five, four, three, two, one. By command, by command. - [T. Keith Glennan] Development and operation of vehicles capable of carrying instruments and man through space.

00:00:27 - [Neil Armstrong] That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. - [T. Keith Glennan] Long range studies of the benefits of using aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes. (crowd cheering) - [Male] Five, four, three, two, one and liftoff. And a new era of American space exploration. - [T. Keith Glennan] Preservation of the role

00:00:53 of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology. We have a mighty big job to do.