NASA Facts for Kids

A Picture of the NASA Logo

This web page contains NASA facts for kids and is a great resource for anyone of any age researching this space agency. We’re going to provide you with the latest and most accurate facts about NASA from official sources. Alongside facts, you’ll get to see some awesome pictures of NASA and additional resources on NASA.

The NASA facts below will help you understand who NASA is, when NASA was formed, what NASA does, historic NASA missions and other useful facts about NASA. We hope the below facts about NASA are helpful and make researching this spacy agency fun, while opening your imagination into space.

If any of the below NASA facts are inaccurate or out of date, please contact us and let us know.

13 NASA Facts for Kids

  1. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly known as NASA, is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government.
  2. NASA is responsible for the U.S. civilian space program, along with aeronautics and aerospace research.
  3. NASA was the successor of the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics).
  4. NASA was created in 1958 from the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958.
  5. Project Mercury was the first project of NASA.
  6. The first manned spacecraft from NASA was Freedom 7 and carried Alan B. Shepard Jr. into space

    7. on May 15th, 1961.

  7. The headquarters for NASA is in Washington D.C. located on 300 E. Street SW.
  8. The leader of NASA is the NASA Administrator, and this person is nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate.
  9. NASA is funded by the United States Federal Government, which the largest funding peaking in 1966, where it was 4.41% of the federal budget. In 2016, NASA received $19.3 billion dollars for Aeronautics, Earth science, exploration and planetary science.
  10. NASA was the primary opponent of the Soviet space program during the space race.
  11. The NASA Apollo program (1961 to 1972) was successfully at putting the first man on the moon. The Apollo program was able to successfully complete six missions where an astronaut walked on the moon.
  12. The NASA Space Shuttle program (1972 to 2011) was successful at creating a reusable space vehicle that could put humans into orbit. While the program was successful, two shuttles were lost in disasters, killing 14 astronauts. The lost shuttles were Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.
  13. It’s reported that NASA will show new employees the movie Armageddon and ask them to identify as many scientific inaccuracies as they can.

Additional Resources to Research NASA

  • NASA Website – The best way to learn about NASA is to visit their official website.
  • NASA History – Take a ride into the past and learn about the history of NASA.
  • NASA Missions – View a list of all the active, attempted and completed missions by NASA.

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