The Wallops Island Flight Facility was established in 1945 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and is one of the oldest launch sites in the world. It was built to conduct aeronautical research using rocket-propelled vehicles, and its first rocket, the Tiamat, was launched on 4 July 1945. With the birth of NASA in 1958, Wallops contributed to the development of components of space flight programs, capsule escape, and recovery techniques. In 1981, Wallops was consolidated with the Goddard Space Flight Center and is now NASA's primary facility for suborbital programs.