Did you know that improved hurricane forecasts, made possible by NASA satellites such as the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), can save as much as $1,000,000 per mile (1.6 km) of coast evacuated?

On October 14, 1947, in the rocket powered Bell X-1, Capt. Charles E. Yeager flew faster than sound for the first time.

A geostationary satellite travels at an altitude of approximately 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) above the Earth and at a speed of about 11,000 kph (7,000 mph).

Did you know that data from satellite instruments are used by fishermen to find areas where fish are most likely to be found? Fish find food in zones where cold and warm water mix.

On March 16, 1926, Dr. Robert H. Goddard successfully launched the first liquid fueled rocket. The launch took place at Auburn, Massachusetts, and is regarded by flight historians to be as significant as the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk.

NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program (known as "ERAST") develops pilotless airplane technology. It also works on making science instruments very small so that they can be carried on remote-controlled aircraft.

The term "aeronautics" originated in France, and was derived from the Greek words for "air" and "to sail."

On January 31, 1958, Explorer 1 became the first artificial satellite launched into space by the United States. Onboard was a cosmic ray detector designed to measure the radiation environment in Earth orbit.

The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) is NASA's center for aeronautical flight research and atmospheric flight operations. DFRC is chartered to research, develop, verify, and transfer advanced aeronautics, space and related technologies. It also serves as a backup landing site for the Space Shuttle and a facility to test and validate design concepts and systems used in development and operation of the Orbiters.

In 1803, a man named Luke Howard used Latin words to categorize clouds. Cirrus, which means "curl of hair," is used to describe high, wispy clouds that look like locks of hair.

The Altus II unmanned robot plane can circle for up to 24 hours over wildfires, beaming images and data back to computers via satellite. Originally introduced as part of the Environmental Research and Sensor Technology (ERAST) Program, Altus II can map dozens of fires in a day with no risk to a pilot.

Launched on March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. Pioneer 10 is now coasting silently through deep space toward the red star Aldebarran, a journey of over 2 million years.

The U.S. X-Plane Program began with the rocket-powered X-1, the first airplane to break the sound barrier (on October 14, 1947) and has involved to include over 50 different major research designs.

The Gemini program served as a stepping-stone to the Moon, testing astronauts' endurance, and the rendezvous and docking maneuvers that would be needed for a lunar mission. Commander Gus Grissom and pilot John Young were on the first Gemini mission, launched on March 23, 1965.

The Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) began continuous coverage of the Earth's weather in 1962, and provided the first accurate weather forecasts based on data from space.

On January 31, 1961 NASA launched a Mercury Redstone rocket with Ham the chimpanzee on board. The capsule traveled 157 miles before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA has been helping the world communicate since its earliest days, when the experimental Echo project used large metallic balloons to bounce signals from one point on the Earth to another. Telstar 1 followed in 1962, and the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) has been tracking spacecraft since 1983.

The X-15 hypersonic research aircraft flew for nearly 10 years – from June 1959 to October 1968 – and contributed to the development of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, as well as the shuttle program.

Explorer 1 was the first successful American satellite launch, sent into orbit on January 31, 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency, under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun. It discovered radiation belts around Earth, which were named the Van Allen Belts after the scientist who led the research.

Astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space on June 3, 1965. Since White’s historic EVA (Extravehicular Activity), astronauts have used spacewalks to retrieve satellites, repair the Hubble space telescope, and assemble portions of the International Space Station.

June 2, 1966. Surveyor I becomes the first US Spacecraft to soft land on the Moon.