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History of Space Policy

From the birth of NASA with the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 through recent Presidential Space Directives, below is a collection of key documents directing U.S. space policy.

NACA's Special Committee on Space Technology at a meeting at the NACA Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Ohio, May 26, 1958. The members are seated around a conference table facing the camera.
NACA’s Special Committee on Space Technology, called the Stever Committee after its chairman, Guyford Stever, meets at the NACA Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Ohio, May 26, 1958. Left to right, Edward R. Sharp, Director of Lewis Laboratory; Colonel Norman C Appold, US Air Force, Assistant to the Deputy Commander for Weapons Systems, Air Research and Development Command: Abraham Hyatt, Research and Analysis Officer, Bureau of Aeronautics, Department of the Navy; Hendrik W Bode, Director of Research Physical Sciences, Bell Telephone Laboratories; W Randolph Lovelace II, Lovelace Foundation for Medication Education and Research, S. K Hoffman, General Manager, Rocketdyne Division, North American Aviation; Milton U Clauser, Director, Aeronautical Research Laboratory, The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, H. Julian Allen, Chief, High Speed Flight Research, NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Robert R. Gilruth, Assistant Director, NACA Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, J. R. Dempsey, Manager. Convair-Astronautics; Carl B. Palmer, Secretary to Committee, NACA Headquarters, H. Guyford Stever, Chairman, Associate Dean of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hugh L. Dryden (ex officio), Director, NACA; Dale R. Corson, Department of Physics, Cornell University; Abe Silverstein, Associate Director, NACA Lewis; Wernher von Braun, Director, Development Operations Division, Army Ballistic Missile Agency. 26 May 1958
Space shuttle concepts
Space shuttle concept illustrations dated July 1970
NASA
Front cover for NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space
Front cover for NASA Leadership and America’s Future in Space
NASA
President Barack Obama gives a speech at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in 2010
President Barack Obama delivers a speech at the Operations and Checkout Building at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Thursday, April 15, 2010. Obama visited Kennedy Space Center to deliver remarks on the bold new course the Administration is charting for NASA and the future of U.S. leadership in human space flight.
NASA/Bill Ingalls