22 Incredible Facts About NASA

Can you believe NASA only receives about one percent of the federal budget?

Make It Rain

The Vehicle Assembly Building is so big that it has its own weather. The massive air conditioning system prevents the Florida humidity from forming rain clouds near the ceiling.

We Need To See Some Documents

NASA was sued by three men from Yemen for trespassing on Mars. They claimed that they had inherited the planet from their ancestors thousands of years ago.

That’s A Major “Whoops”

In 2006 NASA admitted to having accidentally recorded over the original tapes of the moon landing. Fortunately NASA wasn't the only group recording. Copies found at CBS and Johnson Space Center are currently being restored.

Bill Nye, The “Not An Astronaut” Guy

Bill Nye the Science Guy originally wanted to be an astronaut, but NASA kept rejecting him.

Talk About Being Petty

Gregory Nemitz and his company Orbital Development apparently laid claim to asteroid 433 Eros. The spaceship NEAR Shoemaker landed on the asteroid in 2001 and Gregory subsequently issued NASA a parking ticket for $20.

Dream Job

NASA will pay you to lay in bed for months at a time so they can study the effects of prolonged weightlessness.

Better Get Your Telescopes Ready

NASA will send you a text message whenever the International Space Station passes over your location.

Ben Affleck Being An Astronaut Is One

As part of its staff training, NASA will show the movie Armageddon and asks the trainees to identify as many scientific inaccuracies as they can.

Super Soaker > Stealth Bomber

Lonnie Johnson, the man who invented the Super Soaker was a NASA scientist. He also helped develop the Stealth Bomber.

That’s Unbelievable!

According to polls, most Americans think that NASA funding accounts for roughly 20% of the national budget. In reality NASA receives less than $0.005 cents of every dollar.

Send Your Toast To Space

The toaster in your kitchen contains a more powerful computer than the one used by NASA to send astronauts to the moon. It only had 64Kbyte of memory and operated at 0.043MHz.

Very Clever

The area code for Kennedy Space Center and its surrounding regions is 321 (imitating the countdown before liftoff).

That’s Not Creepy At All…

In 2006 NASA scientists discovered a strange noise in deep space that was several times louder than anything they would expect. To this day they do not know what it was and it has been dubbed the "Space Roar".

Australia Takes Littering Very Seriously

In 1979 when Skylab crashed in Australia upon reentry, NASA was fined $400 by the Australian government for littering. It was just recently paid.

No Astronauts On The Ground

To be officially considered an astronaut by NASA you must travel at least 50 miles above the surface of the Earth.

Everybody Makes Mistakes

In 1999 NASA lost an orbiter because half of the engineers were using metric measurements and the other half were using imperial measurements.

They Didn’t Just Do It For The Sunshine

Cape Canaveral in Florida was chosen as a launch site because its proximity to the equator gives it more linear velocity than any other location in the United States. This way, if NASA launches its rockets eastward they can take advantage of the Earth's rotation.

Can We Get That Upfront?

NASA estimates that the value of minerals in the asteroid belt amounts to about $100 billion for every human on the planet.

They Don’t Only Focus On Space

In 2008 NASA worked with Speedo to create the most drag resistant swimsuit ever. It was so successful that swimmers were actually banned from using it in many competitions.

Glad No One Outbid Them

Since the Space Shuttle electronics were so outdated and nobody made them anymore, NASA actually resorted to buying spare parts on websites like eBay.

Will Kevin Costner Be There?

NASA has discovered a “waterworld” planet about 40 light-years away from earth that might contain exotic materials such as “hot ice” and “superfluid water.”

Best. Job. Ever.

NASA employee George Aldrich gets paid just to smell things. Aldrich sniffs objects to make sure there are no unpleasant odors on the ISS and shuttle.