Goddard Space Flight Center

Goddard Space Flight Center is located in Greenbelt, MD. This NASA centers builds and operates many of NASA's science and research satellites, most notably the Hubble Space Telescope.

While touring Goddard, we were told that Goddard was the "first NASA center," in that it was the first center built after NASA's formation. All of the then currently-existing centers were old NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) centers. Goddard was also the first "space center," in that it was created specifically to support the space program; the other centers of the time, with their NACA roots, split their time between space and aeronautics.

During the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo days, Goddard was the hub of the Manned Space Flight Network; nearly all communications with the spacecraft were channeled through Goddard before being sent to Mission Control Houston.

Additional information on Goddard's history can be found in Dreams, Hopes, Realities: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, The First Forty Years.

Goddard's Visitor Center has a small museum and rocket garden. Previously the home of Gemini 12, it was moved to the Adler Planetarium in 2006.

While visiting, I began chatting with the Visitor Center director. He was giving a facilities tour later in the day, and he insisted that we come along. So, in addition to the Goddard Visitor Center, I also got to see several "behind the scenes" locations, including hardware to be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope on Servicing Mission 4. We saw many of the facilities described on NASA's Facilities and Resources at Goddard page.

Obligatory Google Maps aerial view.

As of now, I have not yet sorted through all of my pictures of Goddard, but some other page references this location. Thus, this is a "place holder" version right now, with only the pictures actually referenced. Come back some time later to see if I've finished up, or drop me an email to request me to prioritize the rest of these pictures.