Photo: The opening day ceremony of the Goddard Space Flight Center on March 16, 1961 | NASA – Great Images in NASA Description
May 1, 1959: Goddard Space Flight Center established in Greenbelt, MD
The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is NASA’s first and oldest space flight center. Initially called the Beltsville Space Flight Center, it was rechristened as the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on May 1, 1959. The change was made in honor of American physicist Robert H. Goddard, who is widely considered to be the father of modern rocketry. Today, the GSFC is the workplace of the nation’s largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists who build spacecrafts, instruments, and new technology to study Earth, the sun, our solar system and the universe at large.