National Aeronautics and Space Adminstration

National Aeronautics and Space Adminstration (NASA), U.S. government agency responsible for nonmilitary space exploration and related research. Founded by President Eisenhower (1958), it has numerous research stations, laboratories, and space flight launching centers, including the Kennedy Space center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., the Johnson Space Center at Houston, Tex., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

See also: Space exploration; Observatory; Telescope; Radio telescope.