Founded in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), replaced the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Since then, NASA began to explore the outer space, and, on May 5 1961, Alan Shepard was the first man to travel outside our atmosphere for 15 minutes.

This year, NASA is going to celebrate its 50 year anniversary. For this special event, NASA has prepared a special collection of space images.