The
Goddard Space Flight Center (
GSFC) is a major
NASA space research
laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000
civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of
Washington, D.C. in
Greenbelt, Maryland,
USA. GSFC, one of ten major NASA field centers, is named in recognition of
Dr. Robert H. Goddard (1882–1945), the pioneer of modern rocket propulsion in the United States.