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To get off the ground you need an engine.
20 years before rockets carried the first humans out of our atmosphere,
the NACA built a laboratory dedicated to aircraft propulsion.
Construction began in 1941, in Cleveland
and became what we know today
as NASA's Glenn Research Center.
The focus on piston engine performance during the war
evolved into testing some of the nation's first jet engines,
improving turbojet and ramjet designs in the 1940s and 50s.
Researchers at the lab advanced aviation safety,
expanded the NACA's award winning icing research,
and developed crash fire prevention and passenger restraints.
In the Atomic age,
it was in Ohio that the NACA investigated
nuclear propulsion systems for aircraft and rockets.
Beginning in 1958,
the lab applied its aeronautics expertise to space.
High-energy propellant research
led to NASA using liquid hydrogen
in most upper stage rockets, and the space shuttle.
Investigations continued into cryogenic
propellant handling and microgravity research.
In 1962, the center became responsible
for the Centaur rocket program,
that sent the surveyor spacecraft to the moon,
launched probes to the outer planets,
and placed scores of satellites into orbit.
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