Since the dawn of civilization, human beings have gazed up into the night sky and wondered about the nature of objects they saw there. With the development of rockets and other technologies in the latter half of the 20th century, humans began to venture into space.
While many exploration activities have had utilitarian reasons, such as increasing national power or making money, others have been more about a quest for knowledge and discovery. This has been the case with space exploration, which continues to hold a strong hold on the imagination of not only professional astronauts and laypeople alike. This is perhaps why many people have, at great personal risk, consented to sit atop the Redstone, Atlas, Titan or Saturn rockets described in Tom Wolfe’s classic novel, The Right Stuff (1979).
Most exploration of space has been conducted by uncrewed spacecraft (called satellites when they are not being propelled) sent into Earth orbit and into solar orbit, as well as into the lunar and planetary surfaces of the Moon, Mars and Venus. These probes have made numerous discoveries, including confirming the existence of the Van Allen radiation belts around our planet.
In the future, NASA and partners, including private spaceflight companies, will continue to develop technologies for advancing human spaceflight and enabling longer-duration habitation in harsh environments. This will allow us to reach farther away destinations in the solar system and beyond and will make it possible to explore more of the universe to advance science, innovation and benefit humanity.