Looking back on 65 years of NASA

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This month marks 65 years since NASA was created, forever altering the course of human history. Let's take a look back at what led us to where we are now.

Transcript

00:00 This weekend marks 65 years since President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation that

00:05 created NASA, setting the U.S. off on a race for space.

00:09 Joining us today to talk about some of the space agency's major milestones is NASA historian

00:14 Brian Odom.

00:15 Welcome, Brian.

00:16 Hey, thank you.

00:18 Why was the space program started and what were the goals in it in the beginning?

00:23 Yeah, early on, NASA was formed again as a result of this attempt really to make the

00:30 exploration of outer space peaceful in the United States.

00:33 It was born of that Cold War mentality.

00:36 The Soviets had been first with Sputnik in the fall of 1957.

00:43 So American public was kind of caught off guard, seeing that this was a political liability.

00:48 So the space agency was basically created to catch up, to kind of integrate that program

00:54 together.

00:55 Some of the first things that NASA is really responsible for is beginning to put a human

01:00 in space was part of it.

01:02 How do we get into orbit?

01:03 How do we begin the process of understanding what the microgravity environment is like?

01:08 You know, things like weather satellites, how can we use space as a platform for discovery,

01:14 looking at weather satellites, thinking in terms of communications.

01:18 So it was busy.

01:19 In 1962, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7.

01:26 Why was that such an important mission and was he in any danger during that mission?

01:30 Yeah, it was a critically important mission.

01:33 Again, like we mentioned with Sputnik, you know, America had been second to the Soviets

01:36 already with putting a satellite into orbit.

01:38 Well, they were also second in putting a human being into space.

01:41 During Gagarin's flight in April of 1961, America had responded with Alan Shepard in

01:47 May.

01:48 Yeah, putting John Glenn into orbit was incredibly important, though, because it really did,

01:54 it was a really important moment to show that America had this capability.

01:59 People forget that Alan Shepard's flight was suborbital.

02:01 You know, he didn't go into orbit like Gagarin had.

02:04 So now the United States has taken this first momentous step to put someone in space and

02:10 plan for what's coming next.

02:12 Space travel is always really risky, especially for the firsts.

02:15 Now we can't talk about NASA history without talking about Apollo 11.

02:19 Tell me about what that was like from the NASA perspective and how that actually advanced

02:23 the space program.

02:25 Yeah, from John Glenn's flight, as you say, in '62, flash forward to 1969 and the incredible

02:33 momentum really coming from just an orbital flight to landing on the moon was, you know,

02:38 it took a, it really did take a monumental effort.

02:41 There were all these technological challenges that had to be overcome.

02:44 And so, you know, Neil Armstrong, his steps on the moon there, you know, representing

02:48 the culmination of what President Kennedy had called for back in '61.

02:53 For NASA, it really demonstrates what it's capable of.

02:56 Now we're going back to the moon with really a, with a sustainable program.

03:00 You know, it's long, it's really well thought out.

03:03 It's an incremental approach staged over a long period of time with the result that,

03:08 you know, one day we will learn enough to go on to Mars.

03:10 So it's, it's quite a different way to frame it up from a, especially from a resource and

03:15 a policy standpoint, but also from that scientific mission.

03:19 Thank you.

03:20 NASA historian, Brian Odom.

03:22 Hey, thank you so much.

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