NASA Crossword Puzzle for Kids

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that deals with space exploration and aeronautics, the operating and designing of planes. NASA has had many successful missions, for example the ISS, and Apollo 11, which put the first man on the Moon in 1969. NASA was founded on July 29, 1958.

Four astronauts from NASA, are in space as of 2025's second quarter. Three of those are supposed to come back to Earth in July. One is supposed to come back in December.

Founding and the Sputnik crisis

NASA was preceded by the "National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics" (NACA). NACA was a US federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA was founded to compete with the Soviet Union in the space race. In the 1950s and 1960s there was a space race between the US and the Soviet Union - now called Russia. The Soviets started first launching Sputnik 1, the first object made by people to go into orbit, in October 1957. The Americans were worried by this. It caused a crisis known as the Sputnik Crisis as the Americans feared the Russians might start building weapons in space. This all happened at a time called the Cold War when the US and the Soviet Union were always very close to war.

Space flight programs

Originally NASA was very small with only four laboratories and around eighty people working there. German engineers and scientists led by Wernher von Braun helped them build rockets. They had helped build the V-2 missile in Germany during World War II and the Redstone missile for the US Army afterwards. Their Army missile laboratory was transferred to NASA.

In 1960 they set up the Mercury project. The Mercury Project space missions were designed by NASA, mostly to test if humans could survive in space. After they proved it was possible for people to live in space they moved on.

On May 15th 1961 astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Less than a year later, John Glenn became the first American to orbit or circle the Earth. He did so in a spacecraft called Friendship 7. Once the Mercury Project proved that humans could live in space, the Gemini Project was started. Less than a year after it began, the Apollo Program also began.

After the success of Mercury, NASA realized it had to start planning for its missions to the Moon. The Gemini spacecraft was built for two men. It was still small and cramped similar to the Mercury capsule, but allowed for more freedom of movement. Project Gemini proved that two spacecraft could rendezvous (meet and dock) in space. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, was also on the first Gemini flight to dock with another spacecraft in outer space. The Gemini spacecraft did not dock with another spacecraft with people in it. Instead, it docked with a modified rocket stage called the "Agena Target Vehicle". The last few Gemini missions were science experiments and spacewalks designed to prepare for the Apollo Program, which would land human beings on the Moon.

The Apollo program was started by President John F Kennedy in the 1960s. The program was made of 16 missions designed to send a man to the Moon and return him safely back to Earth. The first Apollo mission, Apollo 1, ended in disaster when a fire in the command module killed all the astronauts on board. The Apollo 8 and 10 missions went to the moon. They tested equipment and took photos but did not land.

NASA's future

The Artemis 2 mission, is scheduled to launch in 2026. The spaceship is supposed to do a flyby of the Moon. The choice of astronauts (as of 2024's second quarter)

Artemis 3, it is supposed to land a crew on the Moon no earlier than mid 2027. The mission depends on a support mission to put a Starship Human Landing System (HLS) in place in a near-rectilinear halo orbit of the Moon. The SLS with Orion (spacecraft) will be part of Artemis 3.

Artemis 4, it is supposed to land a crew on the Moon, no earlier than September 2028.

Artemis 5, it is supposed to land a crew on the Moon, no earlier than March 2030. "Blue Origin [...] was chosen [... in 2023] to develop the landing system for Artemis 5".

In early 2010, President Barack Obama cancelled the Constellation project that was aiming to have humans return to the moon's surface by 2020. He said the project was "behind schedule and lacking in innovation". At the same time he cut back the amount of money NASA will be getting from the government in 2011.

NASA Missions

NASA has launched over 500 missions. Over 150 missions had humans on board. Such manned missions are the most expensive and make the most news but the majority of launches are for space exploration, science, and other purposes that do not need people. NASA spacecraft such as Cassini-Huygens and the Voyager program have visited every planet in the Solar System. Four NASA spacecraft have left the Solar System, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, while the fifth, a New Horizons spacecraft is estimated to exit the solar system by 2048. As of 2022 Voyager 1 is 23,447,000,000 (23.4 billion) kilometers away from Earth and Voyager 2 was at a distance 19,474,000,000 (19.4 billion) kilometres away from Earth.

The New Horizons spacecraft flew past Jupiter in February 2007, studying some of the planet's moons. On July 14, 2015 the craft flew by Pluto, took high resolution pictures of the planet's surface and analysed the chemical properties of its atmosphere.

Use of the metric system

Like other scientific organizations, NASA conducts most of its measurements in the international system (metric system). This is partially due to federal law requiring that most US government programs be done in the international system. In the 1980s, NASA transitioned to the metric system, but was still using US customary \ imperial units into the 1990s. In September 1999, a mixup (or mistake) between imperial and metric units resulted in the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter.

Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “NASA” (revision 10872394, 2026-05-28), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.