NASA means National Space and Aeronautics Administration, (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and is the American Space Agency, responsible for the research and development of space exploration technologies and programs and its mission to enhance the future in research, discovery and exploration space.
In October 1957, Russia launched the Sputnik of the Soviet Union Rocket Test Unit. This launch caused NASA to be created to compete with the Russians in the space race. NASA, through Project Apollo, sent two astronauts who landed on the lunar ground on July 20, 1969. He was also responsible for other space research programs, sending space shuttles such as the Columbia, Challenger and Discovery, which took the Hubble telescope into space. Then they sent Atlantis and finally Endeavor.
NASA has developed programs with space research satellites and probes, where a large group of astronauts and scientists conduct studies with probes that traveled to other planets, exploring the solar system with advanced robotic missions, and also for the purpose of building and maintaining stations space.
Due to the serious economic problems that the American State has been facing, the government decided, at the end of July 2011, to close the space shuttle activities. NASA will continue its research with the Russian unit that will take American astronauts to the international space station.
Through the astronaut training program, NASA trained Marcos César Pontes, an Air Force pilot, who was the first Brazilian to go into space in March 2006.