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An aerial photograph of the NASA Goddard Visitor Center, with white and brick rectangular buildings peeking out from among dense green trees behind a tall white rocket. The rocket stands in the center of a tan paved circle and is shaped like a pencil with a long, slim tower and a slight bulge at the top. Several smaller red, white, and yellow rockets are displayed on their sides around the paved circle, with another rocket standing in a smaller, white paved circle near the trees.

A view looking down at Nithin Abraham studies a paint sample in her laboratory.

The Webb Telescope's mirror being tested at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Goddard Space Flight Center

Goddard is NASA’s premiere space flight complex and home to the nation’s largest organization of scientists, engineers, and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments, and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, our solar system, and the universe.

Learn More About Goddard

Location

Greenbelt, Maryland

Founded

May 1, 1959

People

10,000+

Director

Dr. Makenzie Lystrup

Lucy's Journey to the Trojan Asteroids

Learn more about Lucy

An illustration of the Lucy Spacecraft in space besides an asteroid.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Completes Asteroid Flyby

Visualization showing a black and white image of stars, with a zoomed in view square of asteroid Dinkenish with a yellow circle around it. There's a timeline above the image showing the dates Lucy passed near the asteorid between Sept. 3 through Sept. 22, and will eventually Lucy passes by the asteroid on Nov. 1.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Continues Approach to Asteroid Dinkinesh

An illustration of the Lucy Spacecraft in space besides an asteroid.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Preparing for its First Asteroid Flyby

Latest Goddard News

See All Goddard News

Webb Telescope: A prominent protostar in Perseus

NASA’s Fermi Mission Nets 300 Gamma-Ray Pulsars … and Counting

NASA Scientific Balloons Ready for Flights Over Antarctica

Bethany Theiling: Researching Oceans on Earth and Beyond

NASA’s Webb Reveals New Features in Heart of Milky Way

NASA Researcher Honored by Goddard Tech Office for Earth Science Work

Hubble Images Galaxy with an Explosive Past

NASA’s Hubble Measures the Size of the Nearest Transiting Earth-Sized Planet

Visit Goddard

Explore exhibits of spacecraft and technology at the Goddard Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A child spreads their arms in front of a large screen.

People of Goddard

More Goddard People

Rita Owens: Keeper of NASA’s Digital Knowledge

Lynn Bassford Prioritizes Learning as a Hubble Mission Manager

Shaigh Sisk: Keeping the Wheels Turning in Projects and Pottery

Javier Ocasio-Pérez Brings Teams and Missions Together

Mike Moreau: Bringing Bennu Back to Earth

Latest Videos from Goddard

Check our more videos on Goddard YouTube

Focus Areas and Capabilities

Goddard plays a pivotal role across all aspects of NASA missions, from development to de-orbit.

North and South America at nigh

Earth & Climate

Image of the Sun with a solar flare escaping from the side.

The Sun

Artist illustration of Jupiter partially shaded.

The Solar System

an undulating, translucent star-forming region in the Carina Nebula is shown in this Webb image, hued in ambers and blues; foreground stars with diffraction spikes can be seen, as can a speckling of background points of light through the cloudy nebula

The Universe

Testing of OSAM-1’s Robotic Servicing Arm

Technology

The Antares rocket lifting off Pad 0A, a plume of white smoke underneath.

Launch Range

History of Goddard Space Flight Center

Pioneering spaceflight and innovation

Named for American rocketry pioneer Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the center was established May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight complex.

Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945) is considered the father of modern rocket propulsion. A physicist of great insight, Goddard also had a unique genius for invention. It is in memory of this brilliant scientist that NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was established on May 1, 1959.

Black and white image of Dr. Robert Goddard and other colleagues all holding a large rocket.

Dr. Robert Goddard, second from right, and colleagues hold up a rocket prior to a flight in New Mexico on April 19, 1932.

Goddard Space Flight Center

26 Images

Goddard Facilities

Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Wallops Flight Facility

Katherine Johnson IV&V Facility

White Sands Test Facility

Scientific balloon, which is a clear, upside down teardrop shade, with a long tube leading to it being used to inflate it.

Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility

Featured Podcast

NASA's Curious Universe

Our universe is a wild and wonderful place. Join NASA astronauts, scientists and engineers on a new adventure each episode — all you need is your curiosity! First time space explorers welcome.

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April 11, 2023

To the Stars with Jessica Watkins

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