On July 29, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This legislation expanded the original National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) into NASA. NASA research was generously funded by Eisenhower’s successors, (Kennedy and Nixon), was responsible for groundbreaking American achievements such as the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969 and the development of the space shuttle, first launched in 1981.
