The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to "provide for research into problems of flight within and outside the Earth's atmosphere, and for other purposes." At the time of NASA's creation, it was not possible to predict what the organization would later accomplish. Although not without its critics, NASA has been one of the most respected organizations in the world for more than forty years. The impetus for the Space Act was the Cold War. The act was passed by Congress one year after the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. From these beginnings, NASA has continued to educate and amaze the public with a nearly continuous stream of "out of this world" achievements.

NASA's accomplishments in its more than forty years of existence are led by the Apollo missions that landed humans on the Moon, the...