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On July 29, 1958 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Act - and thus NASA was born.

Today marks 60 years since that fateful day and NASA have achieved some truly incredible feats in that time.

In 1951 Alan Shepard became the first American in space, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon in 1969 (something Shepard did in 1971) and in 1983 Sally Rider became the first American woman in space.

In 2001, the first crew of three took up residence in the International Space Station and there are currently six crew members on board - three Americans (Andrew Feustel, Richard Arnold and Serena Auñón-Chancellor), two Russians (Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev) and a German (Alexander Gerst) on expedition 56/57.

Amazing NASA Space Images - In pictures 60 show all Amazing NASA Space Images - In pictures 1/60 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 NASA 2/60 This 1969 photograph of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft NASA 3/60 Astronaut Bruce McCandless II photographed 320 ft from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the first untethered EVA, made possible by his nitrogen jet propelled backpack (Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU) in 1984 NASA 4/60 The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image NASA 5/60 Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2011. This lift off is the last in the 30-year-old shuttle program Getty Images 6/60 The first teklevision image of Earth from a weather satellite taken by the TIROS-1 satellite in 1960 NASA 7/60 The Echo 2 satellite in 1960. Once the balloon was launched into orbit, a prerecorded message from President Dwight Eisenhower was transmitted from California and heard with clarity in New Jersey NASA 8/60 The original seven Mercury astronauts and pioneers in human space exsploration pose in their silver spacesuits in 1961 NASA 9/60 President John F. Kennedy calls for a moon landing in 1961 durning Congress NASA 10/60 Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 space capsule in the Atlas rocket in 1962. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth NASA 11/60 A close-up view of an astronaut's bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon in 1969 NASA 12/60 Man's first landing on the Moon. Lunar Module, "Eagle," touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the Moon. Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong wre the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969 NASA 13/60 After an 8 month voyage to Mars, Mariner 4 makes the first flyby of the Mars (the red planet) in 1965 and became the first spacecraft to take close-up photographs of another planet NASA 14/60 Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission in 1965 NASA 15/60 The X-15 completed 199 flights to the edge of space from 1959-1968. Neil Armstrong was one of it's budding young pilots NASA 16/60 Earthrise over the moon from Apollo 8 in 1968 NASA 17/60 American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the mammoth-sized Saturn V rocket on their way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 18/60 Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969 NASA 19/60 Home View of Moon limb with Earth on the horizon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission NASA 20/60 Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin laugh with President Richard Nixon aboard the USS Hornet in 1969 Richard Nixon Foundation via Getty Images 21/60 Lunar mission Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA) in 1972 NASA 22/60 First image of Viking 1's foot plantid on martian soil foot in 1976 NASA 23/60 The first ever long distance image of the Earth and Moon together. The image photograph was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977 NASA 24/60 A dramatic view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings in 1979 NASA 25/60 The first space shuttle launch Columbia lifts off in 1981 NASA 26/60 Astronaut Sally Ride on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. She became the first American woman in space NASA 27/60 One of the most celebrated images taken by the Hubble called 'Pillars of Creation' NASA 28/60 Space shuttle Challenger destructs after lift off in 1973 NASA 29/60 NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA's SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona NASA 30/60 Trailing a column of flame and smoke that dwarfs it, Space Shuttle Endeavour leaps into the clear blue Florida sky on mission STS-99 in 2000 31/60 Space Shuttle Atlantis clears the tower as it roars into space on mission STS-106 after a perfect on-time launch in 2000 NASA 32/60 2004 The deepest view of 10,000 galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called the Hubble Ultra Field Deep (2004) NASA 33/60 2005 A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken (2005) NASA 34/60 International Space Station pictured by the crew of Atlantis in 2008 NASA 35/60 The rim of Gale Crater is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze, in this view of NASA's Curiosity rover of a sloping hillside on Mount Sharp NASA 36/60 Taken on June 03, 2008 and released by NASA on June 4, 2008 shows US space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Michael Fossum being photographed by US Mission Specialist Ronald Garan (reflected in Fossum's face shield) as they work outside The International Space Station during the first of three planned space walks. AFP/Getty Images 37/60 In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories -- Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory -- have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way NASA 38/60 A striking black and white image showing the detail of the planet Saturn NASA 39/60 This majestic false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows 'mountains' where stars are born. These towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm embryonic stars NASA 40/60 The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas in 2011 prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station NASA 41/60 Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand. in 2011 NASA 42/60 NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission's third session of extravehicular activity (EVA). During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk in 2012 NASA 43/60 Behold one of the more stunningly detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage, created from photographs taken by the VIIRS instrument in 2012 on board the Suomi NPP satellite, shows many stunning details of our home planet NASA 44/60 Numerous recognizable features appear in this detailed view of London, photographed by an Expedition 10 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The most striking visual features are green open spaces such as Regent's Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park east of Buckingham Palace NASA 45/60 International Space Station image of London at night NASA 46/60 This image of Tropical Storm Anna taken from the International Space Station in 2015 NASA 47/60 Pluto's haze layer and its blue colour, taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in 2015 NASA 48/60 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, dark, narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. These dark features on the slopes are called "recurring slope lineae" or RSL NASA 49/60 Earth observation taken during a night pass by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 NASA 50/60 The moon rises in low Earth orbit by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station in 2017 NASA 51/60 Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas in 2017 NASA 52/60 The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as Expedition 50 astronauts captured this night image of sparkling cities and a sliver of daylight framing the northern hemisphere in 2017 53/60 This composite image made from a series of 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in the Gale Crater NASA 54/60 US. National Parks From Space. Mt Saint Helen's looking spectacular from above NASA 55/60 SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft as it lifts off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2018 NASA 56/60 NASA's Juno spacecraft captures Jupiter's southern hemisphere, as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter in 2018 NASA 57/60 The stunning iamge was shared on social media by astronaut Paolo Nespoli NASA 58/60 The Bailey's Beads effect is seen as the moon makes its final move over the sun during the total solar eclipse NASA 59/60 The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington NASA 60/60 Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter's northern hemisphere picture taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed it's 13th flypast. Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops. NASA 1/60 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 NASA 2/60 This 1969 photograph of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft NASA 3/60 Astronaut Bruce McCandless II photographed 320 ft from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the first untethered EVA, made possible by his nitrogen jet propelled backpack (Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU) in 1984 NASA 4/60 The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image NASA 5/60 Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2011. This lift off is the last in the 30-year-old shuttle program Getty Images 6/60 The first teklevision image of Earth from a weather satellite taken by the TIROS-1 satellite in 1960 NASA 7/60 The Echo 2 satellite in 1960. Once the balloon was launched into orbit, a prerecorded message from President Dwight Eisenhower was transmitted from California and heard with clarity in New Jersey NASA 8/60 The original seven Mercury astronauts and pioneers in human space exsploration pose in their silver spacesuits in 1961 NASA 9/60 President John F. Kennedy calls for a moon landing in 1961 durning Congress NASA 10/60 Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 space capsule in the Atlas rocket in 1962. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth NASA 11/60 A close-up view of an astronaut's bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon in 1969 NASA 12/60 Man's first landing on the Moon. Lunar Module, "Eagle," touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the Moon. Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong wre the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969 NASA 13/60 After an 8 month voyage to Mars, Mariner 4 makes the first flyby of the Mars (the red planet) in 1965 and became the first spacecraft to take close-up photographs of another planet NASA 14/60 Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission in 1965 NASA 15/60 The X-15 completed 199 flights to the edge of space from 1959-1968. Neil Armstrong was one of it's budding young pilots NASA 16/60 Earthrise over the moon from Apollo 8 in 1968 NASA 17/60 American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the mammoth-sized Saturn V rocket on their way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 18/60 Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969 NASA 19/60 Home View of Moon limb with Earth on the horizon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission NASA 20/60 Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin laugh with President Richard Nixon aboard the USS Hornet in 1969 Richard Nixon Foundation via Getty Images 21/60 Lunar mission Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA) in 1972 NASA 22/60 First image of Viking 1's foot plantid on martian soil foot in 1976 NASA 23/60 The first ever long distance image of the Earth and Moon together. The image photograph was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977 NASA 24/60 A dramatic view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings in 1979 NASA 25/60 The first space shuttle launch Columbia lifts off in 1981 NASA 26/60 Astronaut Sally Ride on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. She became the first American woman in space NASA 27/60 One of the most celebrated images taken by the Hubble called 'Pillars of Creation' NASA 28/60 Space shuttle Challenger destructs after lift off in 1973 NASA 29/60 NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA's SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona NASA 30/60 Trailing a column of flame and smoke that dwarfs it, Space Shuttle Endeavour leaps into the clear blue Florida sky on mission STS-99 in 2000 31/60 Space Shuttle Atlantis clears the tower as it roars into space on mission STS-106 after a perfect on-time launch in 2000 NASA 32/60 2004 The deepest view of 10,000 galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called the Hubble Ultra Field Deep (2004) NASA 33/60 2005 A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken (2005) NASA 34/60 International Space Station pictured by the crew of Atlantis in 2008 NASA 35/60 The rim of Gale Crater is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze, in this view of NASA's Curiosity rover of a sloping hillside on Mount Sharp NASA 36/60 Taken on June 03, 2008 and released by NASA on June 4, 2008 shows US space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Michael Fossum being photographed by US Mission Specialist Ronald Garan (reflected in Fossum's face shield) as they work outside The International Space Station during the first of three planned space walks. AFP/Getty Images 37/60 In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories -- Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory -- have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way NASA 38/60 A striking black and white image showing the detail of the planet Saturn NASA 39/60 This majestic false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows 'mountains' where stars are born. These towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm embryonic stars NASA 40/60 The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas in 2011 prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station NASA 41/60 Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand. in 2011 NASA 42/60 NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission's third session of extravehicular activity (EVA). During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk in 2012 NASA 43/60 Behold one of the more stunningly detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage, created from photographs taken by the VIIRS instrument in 2012 on board the Suomi NPP satellite, shows many stunning details of our home planet NASA 44/60 Numerous recognizable features appear in this detailed view of London, photographed by an Expedition 10 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The most striking visual features are green open spaces such as Regent's Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park east of Buckingham Palace NASA 45/60 International Space Station image of London at night NASA 46/60 This image of Tropical Storm Anna taken from the International Space Station in 2015 NASA 47/60 Pluto's haze layer and its blue colour, taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in 2015 NASA 48/60 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, dark, narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. These dark features on the slopes are called "recurring slope lineae" or RSL NASA 49/60 Earth observation taken during a night pass by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 NASA 50/60 The moon rises in low Earth orbit by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station in 2017 NASA 51/60 Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas in 2017 NASA 52/60 The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as Expedition 50 astronauts captured this night image of sparkling cities and a sliver of daylight framing the northern hemisphere in 2017 53/60 This composite image made from a series of 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in the Gale Crater NASA 54/60 US. National Parks From Space. Mt Saint Helen's looking spectacular from above NASA 55/60 SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft as it lifts off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2018 NASA 56/60 NASA's Juno spacecraft captures Jupiter's southern hemisphere, as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter in 2018 NASA 57/60 The stunning iamge was shared on social media by astronaut Paolo Nespoli NASA 58/60 The Bailey's Beads effect is seen as the moon makes its final move over the sun during the total solar eclipse NASA 59/60 The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington NASA 60/60 Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter's northern hemisphere picture taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed it's 13th flypast. Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops. NASA

NASA has always been the gateway to the unknown and the unexplored. They are America's link to all that surrounds us and their missions and research is fundamental to how much we know about space today.

To celebrate this achievement, we've put together a gallery of their most incredible images for the past six decades.

From Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon in 1969, to the first image of earth caught from space in 1960 and Bruce McCandless II becoming the first untethered man in space in 1984 - you can see them all by clicking through the gallery above.