Students at RIT, MIT and other engineering schools around the country, rejoice! Today is the 50th anniversary of NASA’s founding.

On July 29th, 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established in response to the Soviet Union’s success launch of the first manmade satellite, Sputnik, one year earlier.

With the help of NASA, the United States was finally able to pull ahead and win the “space race” by

landing on the moon in 1969.

For the past 50 years, space flight has remained NASA’s exclusive privilege. Only those sanctioned and trained by NASA could step foot into a shuttle bound for space.

Now, the founder of Virgin Airlines, Richard Branson, is working to change all that by establishing the first commercial space airline, Virgin Galactic, which had its first successful test flight yesterday.

Who knows – in 50 years, we may be all living on the Moon.

Thanks, NASA and Branson.