National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Cultural  

1. An agency of the United States government, charged with directing civilian programs in aeronautics research and space exploration. NASA maintains several facilities, most notably the Johnson Space Center in Houston (which selects space crew personnel and is responsible for ground direction of space flights), and the launching pads at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

---

Example Sentences

The 30-year-old quit his job at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration last year to co-found Perseus Defense.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, has been in the news a lot lately, outlining its strategic objectives and preparing to fly astronauts to the moon and back in just a few days.

From Barron's • Mar. 25, 2026

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, meanwhile, has developed e-nose technology to track astronaut health on long-distance or long-duration missions.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026

But for Caleb Scharf, an astrobiologist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a future of space colonization is written in the stars.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026

The expanded mission called for a new name: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly