Highlights
NASA employs scientists, engineers, computer programmers, personnel specialists, accountants, writers, maintenance workers, educators, and people in many other job functions.
In addition to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., NASA has facilities in California, Ohio, Maryland, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Alabama and Missouri.
In all, it reports ten research centers in the country and several more contract research centers.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the place for those who said they wanted to be astronauts at 5 years old and meant it. But NASA is also a top employer for engineers interested in working on the cutting edge of air and space exploration technology.
The agency’s creation in 1958 came as a nervous response to the Soviet Union’s Sputnik I mission, which put the first artificial satellite into orbit around Earth. Taking over the duties of the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), NASA kicked the race to the moon into high gear and eventually beat the Soviets there by successfully completing the first lunar landing mission in 1969.
Since then, NASA has been mired in controversy (such as the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003) while maintaining its leading role in space exploration and the development of new aeronautics technologies. The organization is currently focused on such goals as longer-term space flights and developing new propulsion and optical communications technologies. The agency is developing Program Constellation to replace the space shuttle, which will be retired in 2010. The program will allow astronauts to remain a presence in low Earth orbit and to visit the moon, space station, and possibly Mars.
The agency operates in four organizations, called mission directorates. The four directorates include aeronautics, exploration systems, science, and space operations.