page_title: History of the Goddard Space Flight Center
section_title: Origin of GSFC
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Goddard Space Flight Center / Origin of GSFC
caption_attribution_description: English: By March 16, 1961, enough work had been completed to formally dedicate the new NASA research center named in honor of America's great rocket innovator, Robert H. Goddard. Before the dedication ceremony actually took place, though, Goddard's always innovative employees were once again put to the test. A week before the event, the Secret Service told Goddard's Director of Administration, Mike Vaccaro, that he had to install a fence because President Kennedy might attend the dedication, and the campus was not secure. Although it rained for a week, Vaccaro found a contractor who worked 24 hours a day in the rain and mud cutting down trees and installing a chain link fence. But Vaccaro's troubles did not end there. Someone then noticed the Center did not have a flagpole. Vaccaro had three days to find one and still comply with government procurement regulations. An employee located a flagpole at a school that was closing down, and Vaccaro wrote a specification that described the pole so precisely that only the school could fit the bill. Workers moved the flagpole to the entrance gate?where it still stands today. Deutsch: Eröffnung des Goddard Space Flight Centers
context_page_description: Goddard Space Flight Center is NASA's first, and oldest, space center. It is named after Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry. Throughout its history, the center has managed, developed, and operated many notable missions, including the Cosmic Background Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
context_section_description: On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 80 employees of the government's 46-year-old research agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
  GSFC was established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center.
  Its original charter was to perform five major functions on behalf of NASA: technology development and fabrication, planning, scientific research, technical operations, and project management. Even today, the Center is organized into several Directorates, each charged with one of these key functions.
caption: Photo from the opening day ceremony of the Goddard Space Flight Center on March 16, 1961.
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