Oct 1 1958

From The Space Library

First official day of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Existing NACA facilities, personnel, policies, and advisory committees were transferred to NASA, and the NACA laboratories were renamed Research Centers.

By Executive order of the President, DOD responsibilities for the remaining U.S.-IGY satellite and space probe projects were transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; included were Project Vanguard, and the four lunar probes and three satellite IGYprojects remaining, which had previously been assigned by ARPA to AFBMD and ABMA. Also transferred were a number of engine development research programs.

NASA was organized and NACA was abolished, at the close of business on September 30, with all personnel and facilities transferred to the new agency. At the same time, several space projects were transferred to NASA from DOD. Among these were two Air Force and two Army lunar probes; the services kept the actual work of construction and launching.

Rosholt, An Administrative History of NASA, 1958-1963, pp. 44-48; Swenson et al., This New Ocean, p. 538.