Marshall Space Flight Center

MSFC in Huntsville

## Maps

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* MSFC on US map

The **George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)**, mostly just referred to as **Huntsville**, is a rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center located in Redstone ArsenalW, Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA's largest center. Formed in 1960, its first mission was developing the Saturn launch vehicles for the Apollo program. It has also been the lead center for the Space Shuttle main propulsion and external tank, as well as for payloads and related crew trainings. They also developed and built the Sea Dragon rockets.

The center is named in honor of General of the Army George C. MarshallW.

## History

### Formation

The MSFC was formed on July 1, 1960, out of the preceeding US ArmyW rocket research and development center in Redstone Arsenal. Its first director was Wernher von Braun.

### 1960s

In the early years of the center, von Braun, together with many of his former German engineer colleagues, who were all brought to the US after World War IIW as part of the Operation PaperclipW, started developing the heavy-lift Saturn family rockets at MSFC, aimed to land American astronauts on the Moon before the end of the century, as requested by President John F. KennedyW. This was achieved on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, launched by a Saturn V rocket developed at the MSFC. However, the USA lost the Race to the Moon to the Soviet Union, who had landed there 3 weeks earlier.

In fall 1969, the construction of an orbital workshop out of a Saturn V 3rd stage, called Skylab by von Braun, was underway at MSFC in Huntsville, but was considered to be repurposed into a lunar base called "Moonlab" instead after the Soviets had beaten the US, in order to at least win the "race for the base".

MSFC also developed the lunar rover, which was first used with Apollo 15 in 1971.

### 1970s & 1980s

Starting in the 70s, MSFC developed and then constructed the new US super heavy-lift launch vehicle, the *Sea Dragon*, which first launched in 1977.

Around the mid 70s, development for the Space Shuttle begun. MSFC was responsible for the shuttle's main engines, the SRBs, and the external tank. The first shuttle, the *Enterprise*, was put into operation in fall 1981.

In fall 1974, Tracy Stevens was at the MSFC to prepare her payload for Apollo 25.

In 1983, in the middle of the Cold War, President Reagan proposed a handshake in space between the two superpower's space programs, to ease tension with the Soviets. While evaluating how to manage this without giving the Soviets intel about the US Space Shuttles, Ellen Wilson proposed to use an Apollo command module instead, since they had one left in storage, and Huntsville still had an unused Saturn IB.

## See also

* Other NASA facilites:
	+ Johnson Space Center (JSC, later CSC)
	+ Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
	+ Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
	+ Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
	+ NASA Flight Research Center (Edwards AFB) (FRC)
	+ McMurdo Station (NASA annex)
	+ Carl Sagan Center for Planetary Science
* USAF facilities:
	+ Cape Kennedy
	+ Edwards Air Force Base
	+ Ellington Air Force Base
	+ US Air Force Plant 42
	+ Vandenberg Air Force Base

## External links

* Marshall Space Flight Center on Wikipedia
* Official website

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 10: "The Grey"
2. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 1, Episode 1: "Red Moon"
3. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 1, Episode 4: "Prime Crew"
4. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 1, Episode 5: "Into the Abyss"
5. ↑ AppleTV+ Bonus Video: One Giant Leap: 1975-1982: Sea Dragon Launch (1977)
6. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 1: "Every Little Thing" (Press review opening)
7. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 1, Episode 6: "Home Again"
8. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 2: "The Bleeding Edge"
9. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 4: "Pathfinder"