Computer Celebrates NASA's 50th Anniversary

E stablished in October 1958, NASA is celebrating its 50th anniversary. A significant fraction of Computer’s readers are old enough to remember the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. We have witnessed the space shuttle era and the building of the International Space Station and have watched with keen interest the results of unmanned missions exploring the planets of our solar system and beyond. The Mars Exploration Rover mission launched in 2003 remains in the news as Spirit and Opportunity continue their search for geological evidence for life on Mars, and just last month, the Hubble Space Telescope took the first visible light snapshot of the planet Formalhaut b located 25 light-years away. Over the past decade, Computer has followed NASA’s achievements in science and, more specifically, computer science. We have published numerous articles on NASA’s pioneering efforts in robotics, artificial intelligence, and software engineering. Members of Computer’s editorial board have worked with or for NASA agencies, and our editorial staff has visited and written about many research efforts at Ames Research Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Johnson Space Center. We have come to admire NASA’s contributions to our field. In honor of NASA and its many dedicated researchers, we have assembled a collection of articles celebrating 50 years of achievement.