NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

An aerial view of NASA's Ames Research Center.

Ames' Aeronautics Directorate is comprised of aviation systems, flight vehicle research and technology, wind tunnels, advanced aircraft projects, and aeronautics projects divisions.

Space science, Earth science, biological science, astrobiology and lunar science research are conducted in the Science Directorate.

Advanced supercomputing, intelligent systems, human systems integration, entry systems and technology are the divisions in the Exploration Technology Directorate.

For a list of future, current and past Ames missions, visit the Ames missions page.

All images credit: NASA
Ames Research Center, one of 10 NASA field Centers, is located in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley. For over 60 years, Ames has led NASA in conducting world-class research and development. With 2500 employees and an annual budget of $900 million, Ames provides NASA with advancements in:

• entry, descent and landing technologies,
• information technology,
• next-generation aviation improvements,
• astrobiology,
• airborne sciences and
• small satellite programs

Location: California’s Silicon Valley, 40 miles south of San Francisco; 12 miles north of San Jose, between Mountain View and Sunnyvale
Jobs: 2,500 employees
Economic impact: $1.3 billion annually for the U.S.; $932M for California; and $877M for San Francisco Bay Area creating over 8,400 jobs in the U.S. with 5,900 in California and 5,300 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Budget: $893M
Established: December 20, 1939 as part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), in 1958 absorbed into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Ames' Key Goals

• Maintain expertise in information technology, aerospace and aeronautics research and engineering.
• Conduct research in space, Earth, lunar and biological sciences.
• Develop lead status for NASA in small spacecraft missions.
• Expand public and private partnerships.
• Contribute innovative, high performance and reliable exploration technologies.

Areas of Ames Ingenuity:

Entry systems: Safely delivering spacecraft to Earth & other celestial bodies
Supercomputing: Enabling NASA's advanced modeling and simulation
NextGen air transportation: Transforming the way we fly
Airborne science: Examining our own world & beyond from the sky
Low-cost missions: Enabling high value science to low Earth orbit & the moon
Biology & astrobiology: Understanding life on Earth -- and in space
Exoplanets: Finding worlds beyond our own
Autonomy & robotics: Complementing humans in space
Lunar science: Rediscovering our moon
Human factors: Advancing human-technology interaction for NASA missions
Wind tunnels: Testing on the ground before you take to the sky

› Read about Ames Center Director Pete Worden

For more, visit the websites of various organizations within Ames: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/about/organizations.html

To see a list of Ames missions, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/missions/index.html