Space Policy Edition: How NASA Came to Be

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science · Oct 5, 2018 · 1h 9m

Happy 60th, NASA. In celebration of the space agency’s birthday, we do the audio equivalent of pulling out NASA’s baby book and explore its origin story. Though legislation creating the space agency developed in the wake of Sputnik, it was built upon a rapidly changing relationship of the government to fundamental research and development in the decade before. We follow the threads of what makes NASA NASA, as well as how, in its early years, NASA looked quite different than the agency we know today. We also discuss the current bill that partially funds the U.S. government and provides…