00:00 On this day in space.
00:03 In 1958, NASA was born. Yay, NASA!
00:07 The space agency officially opened for business on this day.
00:10 President Eisenhower had signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law two months earlier
00:14 in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik.
00:17 The U.S. didn't want to get left behind in the space race,
00:20 so Congress created NASA as an organized effort to advance space research and technology.
00:24 NASA absorbed the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or the NACA,
00:29 along with its 8,000 employees and three laboratories.
00:32 And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:35 [ ♪ ]
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