NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Defense and Space ManufacturingMaryland, United States1001-5000 Employees
The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is a U.S. defense and space manufacturing laboratory focused on developing and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft, located in Greenbelt, Maryland. It manages many of NASA's Earth observation, astronomy, planetary science, and astrophysics missions and houses a large organization of scientists, engineers, and technologists who design spacecraft, instruments, and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, the solar system, and the universe. The center operates the Hubble Space Telescope and is involved with the James Webb Space Telescope, and it coordinates communications between mission control and astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight complex, Goddard is linked with several other NASA facilities, including Wallops Flight Facility; the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility; the Goddard Institute for Space Studies; the White Sands Complex; and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility. The center employs between 1,001 and 5,000 people and forms part of NASA's global space science and exploration activities.