the year was 1903 horrible and Wilbur
Wright had a vision to fly only 12 years
after that historic first flight of the
dunes of Kitty Hawk North Carolina the
United States Congress began to organize
a National Aeronautics research effort
in march of 1915 this effort became
known as the national advisory committee
for aeronautics or NACA ground was
broken for the first NACA facility on
July seventeenth 1917 this center would
be named the Langley Memorial
aeronautical laboratory after professor
Samuel Pierpont Langley a 19th century
inventor aviation pioneer and competitor
of the Wright brothers this laboratory
one of the world's premier space and
aviation research facilities would
become known as the Langley Research
Center in the years to come Langley
Research Center is evolved today into
one of the leading aerospace research
laboratories in the world welcome to
NASA Langley Research Center
located in hampton virginia NASA Langley
is the first and oldest NASA facility in
the country Langley began contributing
to the u.s. space program as early as
1940 Project Mercury was born at NASA
Langley in the 1950s over the last 75
years Langley Research Center has made
contributions to flight flight research
and the tools and instruments used in
the development of Aeronautics and
aerospace industries since nineteen
fifty-eight when NASA was formed Langley
Research Center has made significant
contributions in the training of
scientists and managers thereby
strengthening the entire infrastructure
of our nation's aerospace industry
Langley personnel form the core staff
for many of the other NASA facilities
today there are nine major NASA field
centers directed by the headquarters
office located in Washington DC research
laboratories include Langley in Hampton
Virginia the Lewis Research Center in
Cleveland Ohio and the Ames Research
Facility in Mountain View California
test flight facilities include Wallace
located on Wallops Island Virginia and
Bryden in Edwards California Kennedy
Space Center in Florida serves as the
primary site for tests check out and
launch of space vehicles and payloads
Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas
manages the space shuttle program and
has a lead role in space station
development Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville Alabama emphasizes
projects involving investigation and
application of space technologies as
well as problems on earth and in space
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt
Maryland designs fabricates and tests
satellites that survey the earth the Sun
and the universe while the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
California is involved with activities
associated with deep space scientific
missions engineering subsystems
instrument development at data reduction
and analysis required by deep space
flight and finally the Stennis Space
Center in Mississippi where large rocket
propulsion systems are tested as well as
research programs involving space oceans
and the earth take place here at NASA
Langley our mission is simple to provide
basic research in aeronautics and space
technology to create conceptual designs
and theories for primary elements makeup
likely Research Center our people our
facilities our budget and our
relationship with others the center
employs approximately 3,000 civil
service employees as well as 2,500
support service contractors university
staff members and a contingent of 100
military people from the arm to the
copter research group about one-half of
our workforce has earned master's
degrees and about twenty percent of
reached doctoral level our facilities
are currently valued at about 2 billion
dogs line Lee has over 40 wind tunnels
the highest concentration of wind
tunnels in the Western world these wind
tunnels used for testing scale models of
aircraft are capable of simulating wind
speeds from zero miles per hour up to
Mach 25 or about 17,500 miles per hour
which is equal to orbital velocity
Langley's annual budget is approximately
six hundred million dollars of which
over 300 million is set aside for
research the remaining funds operate
facilities and pay salaries the main
product of the center is the knowledge
and information which we provide to
others the information generated through
research at Langley is pass on to
industry universities and other
government agencies
information is also passed on to the
general public as spin-off applications
of aerospace technology research such as
blue highway pavement prevent
hydroplaning and the fetal heart rate
monitor to ensure quality crewneck
health care here at NASA Langley
researchers focus on tomorrow today we
are dedicated to long-term basic
research as well as the high-risk
problem solving in the increasingly
competitive world of the future it is
clear that maintaining America's
preeminence in science and technology
will once again test our nation's
technical vision resolution and
institutional strengths we at NASA
Langley must stimulate advances across a
broad spectrum of aerospace sciences and
technologies critical to America's
future NASA Langley will aid private
enterprise and strengthen American
educational institutions by developing
those resources which support the
evolution of human aspiration