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To get off the ground you need an engine.

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20 years before rockets carried
the first humans out of our atmosphere,

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the NACA built a laboratory
dedicated to aircraft propulsion.

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Construction began in 1941, in Cleveland

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and became what we know today 

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as NASA's Glenn Research Center.

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The focus on piston engine 
performance during the war

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evolved into testing some of 
the nation's first jet engines,

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improving turbojet and ramjet designs
in the 1940s and 50s.

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Researchers at the lab 
advanced aviation safety,

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expanded the NACA's award
winning icing research,

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and developed crash fire prevention
and passenger restraints.

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In the Atomic age,

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it was in Ohio that the NACA investigated

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nuclear propulsion systems
for aircraft and rockets.

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Beginning in 1958,

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the lab applied its aeronautics
expertise to space.

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High-energy propellant research

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led to NASA using liquid hydrogen

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in most upper stage rockets,
and the space shuttle.

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Investigations continued into cryogenic

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propellant handling 
and microgravity research.

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In 1962, the center became responsible

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for the Centaur rocket program,

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that sent the surveyor spacecraft
to the moon,

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launched probes to the outer planets,

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and placed scores
of satellites into orbit.

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