Creation of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Act)

On 29 July 1958 President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, the US federal statute that created NASA. Drafted by the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration, it followed close on the heels of the Soviet launch of Sputnik. Until then space exploration had been treated primarily as a military venture; the Act gave the American programme a civilian character.