Wednesday, July 29, 2026 · america_250

America 250 · NASA founded — July 29

5 questions · 1000 points possible. Below are the prompts, hints, and target locations from this pack.

Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958 — creating NASA from the dust of the post-Sputnik scramble. Today's pack walks five NASA centers and the places they reached.

Practice this pack

01
Drop a pin on the Maryland NASA center that operates the Hubble Space Telescope and most U.S. earth-observation satellites.
● Goddard Road — Seabrook, Maryland, United States
Did you know?
Goddard is named for Robert H. Goddard, the rocketry pioneer who launched the first liquid-fueled rocket from Auburn, MA in 1926. The center opened in 1959 — NASA's first major lab.
Target
38.9956°, -76.8530°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts
02
Drop a pin on the lab that built and operates the Mars rovers, Voyager, and most U.S. deep-space missions.
● Explorer Road — La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States
Did you know?
JPL is managed by Caltech, not run directly by NASA. It built the first U.S. satellite (Explorer 1, 1958) and every U.S. craft to land on Mars.
Target
34.2014°, -118.1715°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts
03
Drop a pin on the Cleveland, OH NASA center that develops propulsion, fuel cells, and ion engines for deep space.
● Taylor Road — Brook Park, Ohio, United States
Did you know?
Originally the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (1941), the center was renamed for John Glenn in 1999. Its 10x10 supersonic wind tunnel can simulate Mach 3.5.
Target
41.4153°, -81.8600°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts
04
Drop a pin on the Virginia NASA center that pioneered American jet aviation and trained the first Mercury astronauts.
● NASA Drive — Hampton, Virginia, United States
Did you know?
Langley was the U.S.'s first civilian aeronautics lab (1917) — it predates NASA by 40 years. Katherine Johnson, the mathematician of 'Hidden Figures,' worked at Langley computing John Glenn's flight trajectories by hand.
Target
37.0844°, -76.3777°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts
05
Drop a pin on the desert dry lake bed where NASA's space shuttles landed when Florida had bad weather.
● Kern County — California, United States
Did you know?
The 22-square-mile lakebed at Edwards has been the U.S. test-flight backstop since the 1940s. About 54 space-shuttle landings happened here — about 40% of all shuttle missions.
Target
34.9054°, -117.8838°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts

America 250 · NASA founded — July 29

Drop a pin on the Maryland NASA center that operates the Hubble Space Telescope and most U.S. earth-observation satellites.

Drop a pin on the lab that built and operates the Mars rovers, Voyager, and most U.S. deep-space missions.

Drop a pin on the Cleveland, OH NASA center that develops propulsion, fuel cells, and ion engines for deep space.

Drop a pin on the Virginia NASA center that pioneered American jet aviation and trained the first Mercury astronauts.

Drop a pin on the desert dry lake bed where NASA's space shuttles landed when Florida had bad weather.