National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA insignia

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was the designation for an early Human space exploration agency created by the former Earth nation United States of America in 1958. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

NASA oversaw the launch of a vast majority of the major spaceflight milestones of the 20th and 21st centuries.

History

• 1958 - NASA is founded
• 1959 - The Ranger program starts (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1960 - The probe Pioneer 5 is launched (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1961 - Alan Shepard is the first American astronaut in space

File:Ranger 3.jpg

Diagram of Ranger 5

• 1962 - John Glenn is the first American to complete an orbit of the Earth (VOY: "One Small Step")
• 1962 - The probe Mariner 2 is launched (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1962 - The probe Ranger 5 is launched (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1967 - The first Saturn V rocket is launched (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1968 - A nuclear weapons platform was launched from McKinley Rocket Base The warhead apparently armed itself, but exploded 104 miles from Earth's surface (TOS: "Assignment: Earth")
• 1969 - The Apollo 11 spacecraft lands on the Moon, recording Humanity's first steps on another world; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are the first Humans to step on the Moon (ENT: "Carbon Creek", "First Flight"; TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday"; VOY: "Threshold", "One Small Step", "Nightingale")
• 1971 - Alan Shepard commands Apollo 14 mission (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits)
• 1972 - The probe Pioneer 10 is launched (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
• 1973 - The first American space station Skylab is launched into Earth orbit (Star Trek: First Contact; ENT: "First Flight")

space shuttle

• 1976 - The space shuttle program starts by conducting the first tests with the prototype, Enterprise OV-101 (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits; Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
• 1986 - The space shuttle Challenger OV-099 explodes 78 seconds after liftoff, killing seven astronauts (dedication from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
• 1996 - Scientists from NASA find the first microscopic evidence of past life on Mars. (VOY: "Future's End")
• 1997 - Sojourner, the first rover vehicle launched by NASA lands on Mars (ENT: "Terra Prime")

ISS

• 1990s to ? - NASA participates in the International Space Station project (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits)
• 1999 - The probe Voyager VI is launched (Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Star Trek Chronology)
• 2002 - The probe Nomad MK-15c, constructed by Jackson Roykirk, is launched (TOS: "The Changeling"; ENT: "Dead Stop")
• Early 21st century - The space shuttle OV-165 is launched (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits)
• Early 21st century - The Earth-Saturn probe expedition is conducted by Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher and includes Fontana and O'Herlihy (ENT: "First Flight"; TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday")
• Early 21st century - NASA collaborates with other space agencies in the International Space Agency, in particular during the Ares IV mission to Mars in 2032 (conducted by John Kelly, Rose Kumagawa and Andrei Novakovich) (VOY: "One Small Step")

File:CharybdisDebris.jpg

NASA Logotype, ca. 2037 on Charybdis debris

• 2037 - The spaceship Charybdis is launched as the third attempt to explore beyond the Sol system; the crew include Colonel Stephen G. Richey, Evans, Schmitt and Cernan (TNG: "The Royale")
• 2038 - NASA loses contact with the Charybdis following a failure in the ship's telemetry system. It was later learned that the Charybdis was contaminated by an alien lifeform which infected and killed all personnel except mission commander Stephen G. Richey. NASA presumably launches the spaceship Jacob to conduct a follow up mission on locating the Charybdis. (TNG: "The Royale"; Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission)

Many of the dates in this list are derived from real-world information. It is possible that NASA merged later on with the Russian, Japanese, and European space agencies along with the emergence of the United Earth Space Probe Agency. The similarity of the Starfleet logo/crest to that of NASA design (not to mention the similarity of the "mottoes") suggests that the NASA component had an influential role.

Personnel

Astronauts

Alan Shepard in 1971

• Aldrin, Buzz
• Armstrong, Neil
• Cernan
• Conrad, Pete
• Evans
• Glenn, John
• Richey, Stephen G.
• Shepard, Alan
• Schmitt

A few starships were named for NASA astronauts: USS Shepard (Alan Shepard), USS Grissom (Gus Grissom), and USS Armstrong (Neil Armstrong).

Others

• Moss, Gerald (media relations department)
• O'Donnell, Shannon (aerospace engineer)
• Roykirk, Jackson (scientist)

Background

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration received "grateful acknowledgment" in the closing credits of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as well as the closing credits of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

To achieve a more realistic and gritty look for Deep Space 9, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine production team looked at NASA photographs of the space shuttles and other space vehicles. (Where No One Has Gone Before)

For the rendering of Earth seen in DS9: "Past Tense, Part I" and DS9: "Past Tense, Part II", David Takemura used an eight-by-ten NASA transparency of the planet to create the footage. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)

External links

• Official NASA website
• NASA at Wikipedia
• Template:Exastris