The National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Photo courtesy of NASA

Did you know that there are astronauts who work near where Emily and Stacy live? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, is in charge of space exploration.

Yesterday, March 23, was the 50th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Gemini III mission. The Gemini program is the program that helped NASA get ready to send astronauts to the moon! On the right, I've put a picture of Gemini III astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young.

Emily and Stacy took me to visit NASA this morning on their way to work. First, I visited the NASA store.

I looked for an astronaut suit, but they didn't have any that fit me. Oh well!

Next, I looked at the model of a satellite. Satellites are machines that NASA shoots up to space (on rockets!). Once they are in space, they orbit around the Earth and take pictures that they send back to the scientists at NASA. If you want to see where all of the satellites are around the Earth, you can visit NASA's iSAT interactive satellite viewer.

The satellite that I saw a model of is called SMAP. SMAP stands for "Soil Moisture Active Passive". It will help scientists learn more about how much water is stored in the Earth's soil and will help farmers, weather forecasters, and emergency workers do their jobs better.