Pre-NASA administrators. Final meeting of NACA,the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,on 21 August 1958. This US organisation,founded in 1915,was formally ended on 1 October 1958 and absorbed by the newly formed NASA,the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. At left is T. Keith Glennan (1905-1995),who had been sworn in as the first NASA administrator on 19 August 1958. At centre is Preston R. Bassett (1892-1992),member of the NACA Committee on Aerodynamics. At right is Charles J. McCarthy (1894-1988),Chairman of the Board of Chance Vought Aircraft,Inc. NASA was formed as a response to the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik I satellite in October 1957 |