NASA
America's space agency since 1958. SpaceX builds the rockets; NASA brings the science, the maps, the safety know-how and much of the money.
A short history
Congress created NASA in 1958, months after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. President Eisenhower signed the law, and NASA opened on October 1, 1958. Highlights since:
- Apollo (1969–1972): twelve astronauts walked on the Moon.
- Space Shuttle (1981–2011): 135 flights, building the International Space Station, where people have lived continuously since 2000.
- Telescopes: Hubble (1990) and the James Webb Space Telescope (2021).
- Mars: a string of rovers, from Sojourner (1997) to Curiosity (2012) and Perseverance (2021), plus the Ingenuity helicopter, the first powered flight on another planet, which flew 72 times.
- Artemis II (April 2026): the first people to travel around the Moon since 1972. The crew splashed down safely on April 10.
Who leads NASA now
Jared Isaacman was sworn in as NASA's 15th Administrator on December 18, 2025. A businessman and pilot, he commanded two private SpaceX missions himself, including the first private spacewalk in 2024. In March 2026 he laid out NASA's plan for a Moon base and a new Mars mission.
What NASA brings to the table
| NASA brings | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Maps and scouting | Its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed SpaceX's candidate Starship landing sites. In 2028 the Skyfall mission will drop three helicopters to scout landing zones for astronauts. |
| Science | Decades of data on where the ice is, how strong the radiation is, and what the dust and soil are like. |
| Landing know-how | NASA has landed rovers on Mars again and again, including the one-ton Perseverance. |
| Nuclear power | Skyfall will use Space Reactor 1, a small fission reactor driving an electric thruster. The Moon base is planned to get a fission power plant. |
| Communications | The Deep Space Network of giant dishes in California, Spain and Australia talks to spacecraft across the solar system. |
| Money and contracts | NASA pays SpaceX and others to fly astronauts and cargo. In 2021 it chose Starship as the first Artemis Moon lander, a $2.9 billion contract. |
| Astronauts and safety | Training, medicine and the hard lessons of Apollo, Challenger and Columbia. |
The Moon base plan
NASA plans to spend about $20 billion over seven years on a base on the rim of Shackleton Crater at the Moon's south pole, built in three phases: frequent robot and crewed landings first (with crewed landings on Artemis IV and V, planned for 2028), then habitats and rovers, then permanent power, a lunar GPS and astronauts living there year-round by the mid-2030s. Next crewed flights will ride commercial rockets from companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. See the landing spots.
NASA's detailed plans Take the free NASA test