Timeline of telescope technology
Encyclopedia
Timeline
of telescope
technology
Chronology
Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...
of telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
- c.2560 BC–c.860 BC — Egyptian artisans polish rock crystal, semi-precious stones, and latterly glassGlassGlass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
to produce facsimile eyes for statuary and mummyMummyA mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
cases. The intent appears to be to produce an optical illusion. - c.470 BC–c.390 BC — Chinese philosopher MoziMoziMozi |Lat.]] as Micius, ca. 470 BC – ca. 391 BC), original name Mo Di , was a Chinese philosopher during the Hundred Schools of Thought period . Born in Tengzhou, Shandong Province, China, he founded the school of Mohism, and argued strongly against Confucianism and Daoism...
writes on the use of concave mirrors to focus the sun's rays. - 424 BC AristophanesAristophanesAristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
"lens" is a glass globe filled with water.(SenecaSeneca-People:*Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Seneca the Younger aka Seneca , son of Seneca the Elder, Roman philosopher and playwright, tutor and advisor of Nero*Seneca the Elder , Roman orator and writer...
says that it can be used to read letters no matter how small or dim) - 3rd century BC EuclidEuclidEuclid , fl. 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I...
is the first to write about reflection and refraction and notes that light travels in straight lines - 2nd century AD — PtolemyPtolemyClaudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
(in his work Optics) wrote about the properties of lightLightLight or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz...
including: reflectionReflection (physics)Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two differentmedia so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Common examples include the reflection of light, sound and water waves...
, refractionRefractionRefraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its speed. It is essentially a surface phenomenon . The phenomenon is mainly in governance to the law of conservation of energy. The proper explanation would be that due to change of medium, the phase velocity of the wave is changed...
, and colourColorColor or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
. - 984 — Ibn SahlIbn SahlThis article is about the physicist. For the physician, see Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari. For the poet, see Ibn Sahl of Sevilla.Ibn Sahl was a Muslim Persian mathematician, physicist and optics engineer of the Islamic Golden Age associated with the Abbasid court of Baghdad...
completes a treatise On Burning Mirrors and Lenses, describing plano-convex and biconvex lenses, and parabolic and ellipsoidal mirrors. - 1011–1021 — Ibn al-Haytham (also known as Alhacen or Alhazen) writes the Kitab al-ManazirBook of OpticsThe Book of Optics ; ; Latin: De Aspectibus or Opticae Thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis; Italian: Deli Aspecti) is a seven-volume treatise on optics and other fields of study composed by the medieval Muslim scholar Alhazen .-See also:* Science in medieval Islam...
(Book of Optics) - 12th century — Ibn al-Haytham's Book of OpticsBook of OpticsThe Book of Optics ; ; Latin: De Aspectibus or Opticae Thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis; Italian: Deli Aspecti) is a seven-volume treatise on optics and other fields of study composed by the medieval Muslim scholar Alhazen .-See also:* Science in medieval Islam...
is introduced to Europe translated into Latin. - 1230–1235 — Robert GrossetesteRobert GrossetesteRobert Grosseteste or Grossetete was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of humble parents at Stradbroke in Suffolk. A.C...
describes the use of 'optics' to "...make small things placed at a distance appear any size we want, so that it may be possible for us to read the smallest letters at incredible distances..." ("Haec namque pars Perspectivae perfecte cognita ostendit nobis modum, quo res longissime distantes faciamus apparere propinquissime positas et quo res magnas propinquas faciamus apparere brevissimas et quo res longe positas parvas faciamus apparere quantum volumus magnas, ita ut possible sit nobis ex incredibili distantia litteras minimas legere, aut arenam, aut granum, aut gramina, aut quaevis minuta numerare.") in his work De Iride. - 1266 — Roger BaconRoger BaconRoger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods...
mentions the magnifying properties of transparent objects in his treatise Opus Majus. - 1270 (approx) — WiteloWiteloWitelo was a friar, theologian and scientist: a physicist, natural philosopher, mathematician. He is an important figure in the history of philosophy in Poland...
writes Perspectiva — "Optics" incorporating much of Kitab al-Manazir. - 1285–1300 spectacles are invented.
- 1570 — The writings of Thomas DiggesThomas DiggesSir Thomas Digges was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to expound the Copernican system in English but discarded the notion of a fixed shell of immoveable stars to postulate infinitely many stars at varying distances; he was also first to postulate the "dark night sky...
describes how his father, English mathematician and surveyor Leonard Digges (1520–1559), made use of a "proportional Glass" to to view distant objects and people. Some, such as the historian Colin RonanColin RonanColin A. Ronan was an author and specialist in the history and philosophy of science.He was educated at Abingdon School in Oxfordshire and served in the British Army from 1940–1946, achieving the rank of major...
, claim this describes a reflecting or refracting telescopeTelescopeA telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
built between 1540 and 1559 but its vague description and claimed performance makes it dubious. - 1570s — Ottoman astronomer and engineer Taqi al-Din seems to describe a rudimentary telescope in his Book of the Light of the Pupil of Vision and the Light of the Truth of the Sights. He also states that he wrote another earlier treatise explaining the way this instrument is made and used, suggesting that he invented it some time before 1574.
- 1586 Giambattista della PortaGiambattista della PortaGiambattista della Porta , also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta and John Baptist Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation....
writes "...to make glasses that can recognize a man several miles away" It is unclear whether he is describing a telescope or corrective glasses. - 1608 — Hans LippersheyHans LippersheyHans Lippershey , also known as Johann Lippershey or Lipperhey, was a German-Dutch lensmaker commonly associated with the invention of the telescope, although it is unclear if he was the first to build one.-Biography:...
, a Dutch lensmaker, applies for a patent for a perspective glass "for seeing things far away as if they were nearby", the first recorded design for what will later be called a telescope. His patent beats fellow Dutch instrument-maker's Jacob MetiusJacob MetiusJacob Metius was a Dutch instrument-maker and a specialist in grinding lenses. He was born in Alkmaar and was the brother of Adriaan Adriaanszoon...
's patent by a few weeks. A claim will later be made that another Dutch spectacle-maker, Zacharias JanssenZacharias JanssenZacharias Jansen was a Dutch spectacle-maker from Middelburg associated with the invention of the first optical telescope. Jansen is sometimes also credited for inventing the first truly compound microscope...
, had a device that sounded like a telescope at the 1608 Autumn Frankfurt Fair.
- 1609 — Galileo GalileiGalileo GalileiGalileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
makes his own improved version of Lippershey's telescope, calling it a "perspicillum". - 1611 — Greek mathematician Giovanni DemisianiGiovanni DemisianiGiovanni Demisiani , a Greek from Zakynthos, was a theologian, chemist, mathematician to Cardinal Gonzaga, and member of the Accademia dei Lincei...
coins the word "telescope" (from the GreekGreek languageGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
τῆλε, tele "far" and σκοπεῖν, skopein "to look or see"; τηλεσκόπος, teleskopos "far-seeing") for one of Galileo GalileiGalileo GalileiGalileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
's instruments presented at a banquet at the Accademia dei LinceiAccademia dei LinceiThe Accademia dei Lincei, , is an Italian science academy, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy....
. - 1611 — Johannes KeplerJohannes KeplerJohannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican...
describes the optics of lenses (see his books Astronomiae Pars Optica and Dioptrice), including a new kind of astronomical telescope with two convex lenses (the 'Keplerian' telescope). - 1616 — Niccolo ZucchiNiccolo ZucchiNiccolò Zucchi was an Italian Jesuit, astronomer, and physicist.As an astronomer he may have been the first to see the belts on the planet Jupiter , and reported spots on Mars in 1640....
claims at this time he experimented with a concave bronze mirror, attempting to make a reflecting telescope. - 1630 — Christoph ScheinerChristoph ScheinerChristoph Scheiner SJ was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer in Ingolstadt....
constructs a telescope to Kepler's design. - 1650 — Christiaan Huygens produces his design for a compound eyepiece.
- 1663 — Scottish mathematician James GregoryJames Gregory (astronomer and mathematician)James Gregory FRS was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. He described an early practical design for the reflecting telescope – the Gregorian telescope – and made advances in trigonometry, discovering infinite series representations for several trigonometric functions.- Biography :The...
designs a reflecting telescope with paraboloidParaboloidIn mathematics, a paraboloid is a quadric surface of special kind. There are two kinds of paraboloids: elliptic and hyperbolic. The elliptic paraboloid is shaped like an oval cup and can have a maximum or minimum point....
primary mirror and ellipsoid secondary mirror. Construction techniques at the time could not make it, and a workable model was not produced until 10 years later by Robert Hooke. The design is known as 'GregorianGregorian telescopeThe Gregorian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope designed by Scottish mathematician and astronomer James Gregory in the 17th century, and first built in 1673 by Robert Hooke...
'.
- 1668 — Isaac NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
produces the first functioning reflecting telescope using a spherical primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. This design is termed the 'NewtonianNewtonian telescopeThe Newtonian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope invented by the British scientist Sir Isaac Newton , using a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. Newton’s first reflecting telescope was completed in 1668 and is the earliest known functional reflecting telescope...
'. - 1672 — Laurent CassegrainLaurent CassegrainLaurent Cassegrain was a Catholic priest who is notable as the probable inventor of the Cassegrain reflector, a folded two mirror reflecting telescope design.-Biography:...
, produces a design for a reflecting telescope using a paraboloidParaboloidIn mathematics, a paraboloid is a quadric surface of special kind. There are two kinds of paraboloids: elliptic and hyperbolic. The elliptic paraboloid is shaped like an oval cup and can have a maximum or minimum point....
primary mirror and a hyperboloid secondary mirror. The design, named 'CassegrainCassegrain reflectorThe Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas....
', is still used in astronomical telescopes used in observatories in 2006. - 1674 — Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
produces a reflecting telescope based on the Gregorian design. - 1684 — Christiaan Huygens publishes "Astroscopia Compendiaria" in which he described the design of very long aerial telescopeAerial telescopeAn aerial telescope is a type of very-long-focal-length refracting telescope built in the second half of the 17th century that did not use a tube. Instead, the objective was mounted on a pole, tree, tower, building or other structure on a swivel ball-joint. The observer stood on the ground and held...
s. - 1720 — John HadleyJohn HadleyJohn Hadley was an English mathematician, inventor of the octant, a precursor to the sextant, around 1730.He was born in Bloomsbury, London, to Katherine FitzJames and George Hadley....
develops ways of aspherizing spherical mirrors to make very accurate parabolic mirrorParabolic reflectorA parabolic reflector is a reflective device used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is that of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface generated by a parabola revolving around its axis...
s and produces a much improved Gregorian telescope - 1721 — John Hadley experiments with the neglected Newtonian telescope design and demonstrates one with a 6 inch parabolic mirrorParabolic reflectorA parabolic reflector is a reflective device used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is that of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface generated by a parabola revolving around its axis...
to the Royal Society. - 1730s — James Short succeeds in producing a Gregorian telescopes to true paraboloidal primary and ellipsoidal secondary design specifications.
- 1733 — Chester Moore HallChester Moore HallChester Moore Hall was a British lawyer and inventor who produced the first achromatic lenses in 1729 or 1733 ....
invents the achromatic lensAchromatic lensAn achromatic lens or achromat is a lens that is designed to limit the effects of chromatic and spherical aberration. Achromatic lenses are corrected to bring two wavelengths into focus in the same plane....
. - 1758 — John DollondJohn DollondJohn Dollond was an English optician, known for his successful optics business and his patenting and commercialization of achromatic doublets.-Biography:...
re-invents and patents the achromatic lens. - 1783 — Jesse RamsdenJesse RamsdenJesse Ramsden FRSE was an English astronomical and scientific instrument maker.Ramsden was born at Salterhebble, Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. After serving his apprenticeship with a cloth-worker in Halifax, he went in 1755 to London, where in 1758 he was apprenticed to a...
invents his eponymous eyepiece. - 1849 — Carl KellnerCarl Kellner (optician)Carl Kellner was a German mechanic and self-educated mathematician who founded in 1849 an "Optical Institute" that later became the Leitz company, makers of the Leica cameras.- Biography :...
designs and manufactures the first achromatic eyepiece, announced in his paper "Das orthoskopische Ocular". - 1857 — Léon FoucaultLéon FoucaultJean Bernard Léon Foucault was a French physicist best known for the invention of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of the Earth's rotation...
improves reflecting telescopes when he introduced a process of depositing a layer of silver on glass telescope mirrors. - 1860 — Georg Simon PlösslGeorg Simon PlösslSimon Plössl was an Austrian optical instrument maker. Initially trained at the Voigtländer company, he set up his own workshop in 1823. His major achievement at the time was the improvement of the achromatic microscope objective...
produces his eponymous eyepiece. - 1880 — Ernst Abbe designs the first orthoscopic eyepiece (Kellner's was solely achromatic rather than orthoscopic, despite his description).
- 1897 — Largest practical refracting telescope, the Yerkes ObservatoryYerkes ObservatoryYerkes Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the University of Chicago in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The observatory, which calls itself "the birthplace of modern astrophysics," was founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale and financed by Charles T. Yerkes...
s' 40 inch (101.6 cm) refractor, is built. - 1900 — The largest refractor ever, Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900The Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900, with an objective lens of 1.25 m in diameter, was the largest refracting telescope ever constructed. It was built as the centerpiece of the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900. Its construction was instigated in 1892 by François Deloncle , a member of...
with an objective of 49.2 inch (1.25 m) diameter is temporarily exhibited at the Paris 1900 Exposition. - 1910s — George Willis RitcheyGeorge Willis RitcheyGeorge Willis Ritchey was an American optician and telescope maker and astronomer born at Tuppers Plains, Ohio....
and Henri ChrétienHenri ChrétienHenri Jacques Chrétien was a French astronomer and an inventor.Born in Paris, France, his most famous invention is the anamorphic widescreen process, that resulted in the CinemaScope, and the co-invention of the Ritchey-Chrétien telescope , which was anadvanced type of astronomical telescope, now...
co-invent the Ritchey-Chrétien telescopeRitchey-Chrétien telescopeA Ritchey–Chrétien telescope is a specialized Cassegrain telescope designed to eliminate coma, thus providing a large field of view compared to a more conventional configuration. An RCT has a hyperbolic primary and a hyperbolic secondary mirror. It was invented in the early 1910s by American...
used in many, if not most of the largest astronomical telescopes. - 1930 — Bernhard SchmidtBernhard SchmidtBernhard Woldemar Schmidt was a German optician. In 1930 he invented the Schmidt telescope which corrected for the optical errors of spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism, making possible for the first time the construction of very large, wide-angled reflective cameras of short exposure time...
invents the Schmidt CameraSchmidt cameraA Schmidt camera, also referred to as the Schmidt telescope, is a catadioptric astrophotographic telescope designed to provide wide fields of view with limited aberrations. Other similar designs are the Wright Camera and Lurie-Houghton telescope....
. - 1932 — John Donovan Strong first “aluminizes" a telescope mirror a much longer lasting aluminium coating using thermal vacuum evaporationVacuum evaporationVacuum evaporation is the process of causing the pressure in a liquid-filled container to be reduced below the vapor pressure of the liquid, causing the liquid to evaporate at a lower temperature than normal...
. - 1944 — Dmitri Dmitrievich MaksutovDmitri Dmitrievich MaksutovDmitry Dmitrievich Maksutov was a Russian / Soviet optical engineer and amateur astronomer. He is best known as the inventor of the Maksutov telescope.-Biography:...
invents the Maksutov telescopeMaksutov telescopeThe Maksutov is a catadioptric telescope design that combines a spherical mirror with a weakly negative meniscus lens in a design that takes advantage of all the surfaces being nearly "spherically symmetrical". The negative lens is usually full diameter and placed at the entrance pupil of the...
. - 1967 — The first neutrino telescopeNeutrino detectorA neutrino detector is a physics apparatus designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos are only weakly interacting with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large in order to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino detectors are often built underground to isolate...
opened in Africa. - 1970 — The first space observatory, UhuruUhuru (satellite)Uhuru was the first satellite launched specifically for the purpose of X-ray astronomy. It was also known as the X-ray Explorer Satellite, SAS-A , SAS 1, or Explorer 42.The observatory was launched on 12 December 1970 into an initial orbit of about 560 km apogee, 520 km...
, is launched, being also the first gamma-ray telescopeGamma-ray astronomyGamma-ray astronomy is the astronomical study of the cosmos with gamma rays. Gamma-rays are the most energetic form of "light" that travel across the universe, and gamma-rays thus have the smallest wavelength of any wave in the electromagnetic spectrum.Gamma-rays are created by celestial events...
. - 1975 — BTA-6BTA-6The BTA-6 is a 6 m aperture optical telescope at the Special Astrophysical Observatory located in the Zelenchuksky District on the north side of the Caucasus Mountains in southern Russia...
is the first major telescope to use a altazimuth mountAltazimuth mountAn altazimuth or alt-azimuth mount is a simple two-axis mount for supporting and rotating an instrument about two mutually perpendicular axes; one vertical and the other horizontal. Rotation about the vertical axis varies the azimuth of the pointing direction of the instrument...
, which is mechanically simpler but requires computer control for accurate pointing. - 2008 — Max TegmarkMax TegmarkMax Tegmark is a Swedish-American cosmologist. Tegmark is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and belongs to the scientific directorate of the Foundational Questions Institute.-Early life:...
and Matias ZaldarriagaMatias ZaldarriagaMatias Zaldarriaga is an Argentine cosmologist. Born in Coghlan neighbourhood, Buenos Aires, at the present time he works in the Institute for Advanced Study located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. He is known especially for his work on the cosmic microwave background...
created the Fast Fourier Transform TelescopeFast Fourier Transform TelescopeFast Fourier Transform Telescope is Tegmark and Zaldarriaga's name for a design for an all-digital synthetic-aperture telescope. It is a type of interferometer designed to be cheaper than standard telescope interferometers currently in use....
. - 2018 — The James Webb telescopeJames Webb Space TelescopeThe James Webb Space Telescope , previously known as Next Generation Space Telescope , is a planned next-generation space telescope, optimized for observations in the infrared. The main technical features are a large and very cold 6.5 meter diameter mirror, an observing position far from Earth,...
is to be launched by NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
.
See also
- Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technologyTimeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology-3500s BC:*The earliest sundials known from the archaeological record are the obelisks ancient Egyptian astronomy and Babylonian astronomy-1900s BC:*Xiangfen Astronomical Observatory, Xiangfen County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province, China-600s BC:...
- History of telescopesHistory of telescopesThe earliest known working telescopes appeared in 1608 and are credited to Hans Lippershey. Among many others who claimed to have made the discovery were Zacharias Janssen, a spectacle-maker in Middelburg, and Jacob Metius of Alkmaar. The design of these early refracting telescopes consisted of a...
- Refracting telescopeRefracting telescopeA refracting or refractor telescope is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image . The refracting telescope design was originally used in spy glasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long focus camera lenses...
- Reflecting telescopeReflecting telescopeA reflecting telescope is an optical telescope which uses a single or combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from...
- Catadioptric telescope
- EyepieceEyepieceAn eyepiece, or ocular lens, is a type of lens that is attached to a variety of optical devices such as telescopes and microscopes. It is so named because it is usually the lens that is closest to the eye when someone looks through the device. The objective lens or mirror collects light and brings...
- List of largest optical telescopes historically
- NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...