• Serge Monast was a Québécois journalist and conspiracy theorist who claimed that Project Blue Beam is a NASA plan to fake the Second Coming of Christ to bring about the New World Order?
• Rocco Petrone was the first non-German administrator of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center?
• Olga D. González-Sanabria, a Puerto Rican scientist and inventor, is the highest ranking Hispanic at NASA Glenn Research Center?
• Mercedes Reaves, a Puerto Rican research engineer and scientist, is responsible for the design of a viable, full-scale solar sail at the NASA Langley Research Center?
• although NASA originally thought that there was only one scalloped margin dome on the planet Venus (pictured), they have since discovered hundreds of them?
• during World War II, Paul C. Donnelly (pictured) helped develop the U.S. Navy's Bat, the first U.S. "smart bomb", and later was a senior NASA manager during the Apollo program?
• using concepts described in Sefer ha-Temunah (pictured) the 13th-century Kabbalist Isaac ben Samuel calculated the age of the Universe, a number relatively close to the one estimated by NASA?
• the automated Launch Processing System used by NASA for Space Shuttle launches has reduced the required number of firing room personnel to half of those required for an Apollo launch?
• the DR 6 nebula (pictured) was nicknamed "The Galactic Ghoul" by scientists at NASA because of its resemblance to a human face?
• the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House in Washington, D.C., has been called the "Cream White House" and the "Little White House," and was once the headquarters for NASA?
• Leonid Kadeniuk, the first astronaut of the independent Ukraine, made his first space flight on NASA's space shuttle Columbia in 1997, and had been training for such a mission since 1976?
• Daniel S. Goldin spearheaded the "faster, better, cheaper" approach at NASA?
• NASA conducts field trials, called Desert RATS, for new technologies for manned exploration of the surface of the Moon, Mars, or beyond?
• NASA terraforming expert Christopher McKay has explored the Gobi Desert, Siberia and Antarctica to study extremophilic life forms?
• NASA astronaut Stephen Robinson has logged 497 hours in space?
• Jesuit Donald Merrifield, the first president of Loyola Marymount University after its creation, worked as a consultant for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory?
• NASA engineer Harvey Allen's "Blunt Body Theory" made possible the design of heat shields that protected the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts?
• NASA inventor and scientist, Dr. Pedro Rodriguez is the son of the renowned Puerto Rican salsa singer, the late Pellin Rodriguez?
• Claudia Alexander was the last project manager of NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter?
• Rocketdyne's E-1 rocket engine never saw production, but gave NASA confidence to develop the F-1 that powered the Saturn V to the Moon?
• NASA test pilot Joe Walker's X-1E and record-setting X-15 were two of the very few research aircraft to have nose art? (pictured, Joe Walker and the X-1E)
• NASA offers interested individuals opportunities to fly small experiments aboard the space shuttle called Getaway Specials?
• freestyle wrestler William Kerslake, who competed in three Olympiads and got a gold medal at the 1955 Pan American Games, was also a NASA engineer and co-inventor of of the first ion thruster for space propulsion?

Facts on topics related to NASA

Human spaceflight

• in addition to human spaceflight, there have been many animals in space, including monkeys, apes, mice, dogs, guinea pigs, frogs, rats, cats, tortoises, fish, newts, insects, snails, spiders and nematodes?

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

• the 2009 science fiction television series Twin Spica was produced in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency?
• the European and Japanese collaborative BepiColombo mission (pictured) is planned to be the first extensive mission to Mercury since Mariner 10?

European Space Agency

• 2002's Hurricane Elida was the first hurricane to be observed by the MERIS sensor aboard the ESA's satellite Envisat?
• British canoeist David Florence failed with an application to join the European Space Agency's astronaut training program before winning a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics?
• the European and Japanese collaborative BepiColombo mission (pictured) is planned to be the first extensive mission to Mercury since Mariner 10?
• the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer is used by the European Space Agency to determine the chemical composition of a planet's atmosphere?

International Space Station

• Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor will become the first Malaysian in space when he launches on board Soyuz TMA-11 towards the International Space Station in September 2007?
• the European Robotic Arm will be able to travel around the exterior of the International Space Station under its own control?
• the treadmill COLBERT (Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill) aboard the International Space Station was named after political satirist Stephen Colbert?