Now in terms of the Cold War, we are going to talk about the United States public space agency NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

• While still around to this day, it was founded in 1958 during the Cold War. It was created for the research and development of vehicles and missions for the exploration of outer space and Earth's atmosphere. There were four mission directorates for NASA: research in aeronautics; scientific programs for understanding the origin & structure of the universe, solar system, and Earth; development of space technology; and research into human exploration.

• This agency was created largely in response to the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Sputnik was the first artificial satellite sent into outer space and it was launch by the Soviet Union, marking a major mark in the competition for supremacy of space in the Cold War. It remained in orbit of Earth until January 4, 1958, where it fell back to Earth and burned up in Earth atmosphere. This event shocked many Americans, who assumed their country was technologically ahead of the USSR, and was what many believed to be the beginning of a competition for dominance of outer space between the nations of the Cold War called the "space race".

• NASA was organized around the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). This precursor was created in 1915 by the U.S. Congress and during World War II, it was described as  "The Force Behind Our Air Supremacy" by leaders of the United States. The NACA was known for creating the wing profiles for the North American P-51 Mustang: a very important single-seat long-range fighter-bomber used in the Second World War and the Korean War. The mission statement of the NACA was " ...It shall be the duty of the advisory committee for aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution ...".

• One of the people placed on the NACA board was Orville Wright: one of the Wright Brothers who were a pair of American aviation pioneers credited for creating the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft. The organization was officially abolished with the creation of NASA.

• NASA worked on a project for the North American X-15 hypersonic jet. The jet was used from 1954 to 1968. Around the same time starting in 1958, NASA worked on a project named Mercury. This projected costed about $2.25 billion US Dollars if you adjust for inflation and ran until 1963. The project was about getting a human into space and back to Earth safely. While the program was able to get some people into space safely, it fell behind the USSR who got Yuri Gagarin into space and back to Earth on April 12, 1961.