NASA

Established in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency within the US government focusing on space exploration and research. Though the agency’s mandate has shifted throughout its history—sometimes it seemed to exist to compete against other world powers (as in the Space Race), sometimes to contribute to scientific knowledge—most missions have resulted in the production of unforgettable imagery. While funding (as a percentage of GDP) has been steadily decreasing (in the 60s it reached as high as 4%, while it’s currently around 0.5%), NASA continues to push the limits of space exploration. It is taken for granted that the program will continue to give the world new kinds of “selfies,” ones which inevitably provoke existential wonder.