Marshall Space Flight Center (Images of America)

By: Cindy Donze Manto

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Synopsis: Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was carved from the environs of Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, at the height of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union. Originally, the area was a center for cotton production and large mills, but on the eve of World War II, civic leaders sought a US Army initiative that established Redstone and Huntsville Arsenals for the manufacture and stockpile of small solid-fuel rockets and chemical weapons. After World War II, Operation Paperclip brought scientists and engineers from Germany to pursue missile and rocket development at Redstone Arsenal's Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) and eventually the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After establishing the civilian NASA on July 29, 1958, Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center on September 8, 1960, to the resolute general, statesman, and "builder of peace." The president concluded, "May this great center be ever worthy of its honored name." Following the Mercury and Apollo programs of the 1960s and early 1970s, MSFC's notable achievements continued with Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Space Shuttle, Spacelab, and the space station. Today, Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA's leading center for propulsion systems and launch vehicles, supports the lunar missions of Project Artemis.