indepth
Tradition of exploration, research guides space agency throughout adventurous history
Since 1948, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been a leading force in scientific research and aerospace exploration. Forty years ago, NASA successfully sent the Apollo 11 crew of Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin to the moon, where Armstrong and Aldrin became the first to walk on the moon.
“NASA is still important now,” senior Logan Wedel said. “Space exploration is a powerful machine for technical advancement.”
Not all NASA missions have been successful, such as the Apollo 13 mission. An oxygen tank explosion forced the crew to shut down
more>>Agency faces changes
NASA may not be returning astronauts to the moon in the near future, should Congress pass President Obama’s proposed budget. His budget, which seeks to limit overall spending while increasing funds used to create jobs, would cancel NASA’s 5-year-old Constellation Program.
“I’m never thrilled to hear that NASA is losing money, especially if it indicates a shift the way we view the importance of science,” Lindsay Renick-Mayer, class of 2000, former science writer and co-op student at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
more>>Consider This
After reading about how President Obama’s new budget proposals would severely hinder the progress of NASA, I took it a little personally. A month or so earlier, I had turned my Independent Research Project (IRP) in to my Challenge teacher, which outlined the importance of space exploration as the next “big step” for humanity.
I was proud of my research paper, thinking that I had tapped into something important. Learning of NASA’s effective shot in the leg by the new budget, however, motivated me to briefly summarize the
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