On September 17, 1976, NASA publicly unveiled its first space
shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California. Development of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10
billion and took nearly a decade. In 1977, the Enterprise became
the first space shuttle to fly freely when it was lifted to a height
of 25,000 feet by a Boeing 747 airplane and then released, gliding
back to Edwards Air Force Base on its own accord.

Regular flights of the space shuttle began on April 12, 1981, with
the launching of Columbia from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 
CAMILLE BOHANNON

Voyager 2 launched by a Titan-Centaur rocket.

The U.S. Congress passed legislation establishing the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s
activities in space, on July 29, 1958. NASA has since
sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical,
that have yielded vital information about the solar system
and universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting
satellites that have been instrumental in everything from
weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.

NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union’s October
4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I.

 
The "Face on Mars" was first photographed on this day in history, July 25, 1976. (NASA)

A photo from Mars taken by NASA’s Viking 1 spacecraft left
people perplexed and wondering about the possibility of
extraterrestrial life. 

Dubbed the "Face on Mars," the image appeared to show a
carving of eyes, nose and a mouth in the Martian region of
Cydonia.

NASA’s website said "the Viking 1 spacecraft (below) was
circling the planet, snapping photos of possible landing
sites for its sister ship Viking 2, when it spotted the shadowy  
likeness of a human face."      

Apollo 11 astronauts (L to R) Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong
and Michael Collins.