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is charged by Congress with the responsibility for conducting the U.S. civilian program for the exploration and scientific investigation of space, as well as for the peaceful utilization of space for the benefit of all mankind. It also is responsible for the conduct of aeronautical research. NASA is scarcely two years old, having come into being on October 1, 1958.

is an exciting and an important part of the total challenge presented to mankind in these last decades of the 20th century. With its brief history, NASA is quite aware that man's effort to navigate in space has considerable background. NASA's organizational nucleus was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics which spearheaded aeronautic research and development for 43 years. Many of NASA's programs, facilities, and personnel have come from activities long associated with pioneering developments in rocketry and the space sciences.

in the conquest of space in the United States has involved scientists, engineers, civil and military activities in Government, universities, and industry. Liquid-fuel rocket propulsion, as is well known, was first demonstrated in the laboratory and in flight by Prof. Robert H. Goddard of Clark University. Rocket propulsion then came to worldwide notice in the German V-2, while subsequent ballistic missile development provided the propulsion making possible earth satellites and space probes. NASA's mission is one of joining all governmental agencies, the academic community, and industry in a national program for the peaceful conquest of space for the benefit of all mankind.

of three-dimensional space above the surface of the earth, first in and now beyond the life-giving atmosphere, has been a dramatic experience. In the scientific era in which we live, the fundamental knowledge will determine our destiny more than ever before in human history. Exploration of space has provided important tools and new impetus in our scientific quest for knowledge concerning the nature of matter, time, motion, and even life processes. We are learning hard data about many extraterrestrial realities for the first time. Unpredictable benefits for men on earth  III