January 17th, 2009 by 
Alan
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established on July 29, 1958, by the National Aeronautics and Space Act.
In addition to the space program, it is also responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research. Since February 2006 NASA's self-described mission statement is to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research."
NASA had a $17.3 billion dollar budget for fiscal year 2008. The current head of NASA is Michael Griffin.
President-elect Obama's NASA plans are yet to be seen but in this article he stated he prefers to delay the NASA mission to Mars for five years. It would appear that President Obama's administration might not be as willing to fund NASA as the past adminstrations.
If you're a fan of space exploration and the work NASA does check out the cool NASA shirts, patches, pins, and more items available right now on eBay:
Posted in Telescopes | 
