National Aeronautics and Space Act
July 29, 1958 President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act establishing NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The act was created soon after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the US was very eager to join the "space race" at this time. Before this act the sole purpose of US space exploration was a military venture but that changed after the act was written, making our space activity more science and exploration oriented. When the act was written, it also abolished the NACA or, The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The NACA was a federal agency meant to "undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research". Since then, the US has kept coordinated separate military and civilian space programs. The National Aeronautics and Space act also made extensive modifications to the patent law providing that both employee inventions as well as private contractor innovations brought about through space travel are subject to government ownership, basically discouraging any private development of space travel until the law was changed by the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 which allowed civilian use of NASA systems in launching space craft. The National Aeronautics and Space Act includes a declaration of policy and purpose as well, stating that it is the policy of the US that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all humankind.
Read the Act
You can read the National Aeronautics and Space Act at the following web address: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/about/space_act1.html