NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was established on July 29, 1958, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Therefore, the 40th anniversary of NASA would have been in 1998.
NASA is a U.S. government agency responsible for conducting research and development in the fields of aeronautics and space exploration. Since its founding, NASA has made numerous contributions to the advancement of science and technology, including the first manned missions to the Moon, the development of reusable spacecraft, and the deployment of numerous scientific probes and telescopes.
In 1998, NASA was celebrating its 40th year of operation and had a number of significant accomplishments to its credit. This included the successful landing of the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997, the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 1999, and the ongoing operation of the International Space Station (ISS), which had been under construction since 1998. NASA also continued to work on new technologies and exploration plans for the future, including the development of a new spacecraft to replace the space shuttle, which had been in operation since 1981.