From NASA to a National Space Exploration Administration

Abstract

1 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created by federal legislation known as the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. As NASA turns fifty and begins to carry out nascent national plans for the long-term human exploration of the Moon, many within and outside the space exploration community question the rationale for the back-to-the-Moon effort and the relevance of NASA itself. This uncertain political landscape provides an opportunity to examine the legal foundation of NASA, how this foundation affects the new human space exploration effort, and to address questions regarding the fundamental nature of a national space agency. This essay offers an examination of carrying out a fundamental change in NASA's legal charter so that aeronautics is no longer a responsibility of NASA and that its central purpose is to explore the Solar System with both human crews and robotic systems as a means to advance and aid the establishment of human settlements on our Solar System's planetary bodies as called for by United States national policy.