The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's civilian space program, aeronautics, and aerospace research. NASA was established on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and became operational on October 1, 1958. NASA has led U.S. efforts for space exploration since.
In the Planet of the Apes franchise, other space missions were undertaken by a different space agency known as 'ANSA' which, we are told in the 2011 novel Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, was split from NASA to minimize the risk of communist infiltration into their highly experimental research. Former NASA astronauts Bill Hudson, Maryann Stewart, and Judy Franklin piloted ANSA's Probe Six mission. Later, Hudson, Franklin, and Jeff Allen were crew members of the NASA spacecraft Venturer, which was thrown forward in time from 1976 to 3979.
