Formation of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center

On September 8, 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower formally dedicated the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as a new field installation of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration organization created through the Army transfer of 4,670 civil service employees and 1,840 acres of Redstone Arsenal property and facilities worth $100 million. The new NASA center was named for the late General George C. Marshall, and Mrs. Marshall and Dr. Werner von Braun, who became the center's first director, joined the President at the dedication. The Marshall Center had been activated on July 1, 1960, as part of NASA, which had been established on October 1, 1958, by Congressional passage of the National Aeronautic and Space Act and charged with conducting the nation's space exploration programs. The nucleus of NASA was the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, later named the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

Huntsville, Alabama · United States