High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The NASA Historical Office was established under its first chief historian, Dr. Eugene Emme in 1960. The committee was first made up of a wide variety of members, who initially sought to find support and prestige for the new historical program. From 1969-70, the committee began to be increasingly composed of professional historians from universities, who made known their dissatisfaction with the NASA historical program. As a result, the Historical Advisory Committee was reduced in size and reorganized to be composed of only university-based professional historians to oversee the work of the NASA Historical Office.