Space Shuttle: The Renewed Promise

NASA celebrated its 30th anniversary in 1988, two days after the Space Shuttle soared into space once more. When Congress approved the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958, the United States had successfully launched only four small satellites and no American astronaut had yet flown in space. In the three decades since, four generations of manned spacecraft have been built and flown, twelve men have walked on the Moon, more than 100 Americans have flown and worked in space, and communications satellites and other Space-Age technologies have transformed life on planet Earth. When NASA's Golden Anniversary is celebrated in 2008, it is likely that men and women will be permanently living and working in space. There may be a base on the Moon, and a manned mission to Mars may only be years away. If a brief history of the first half-century of the Space Age is written for that event, it will show clearly how the exploration of space has altered the course of human history and allowed us to take a better hold of our destiny on and off planet Earth.