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By NASA
6 Min Read NASA Marshall Reflects on 65 Years of Ingenuity, Teamwork
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is celebrating its 65-year legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program – and the expansion of its science, engineering, propulsion, and human spaceflight portfolio with each new decade since the NASA field center opened its doors on July 1, 1960.
What many Americans likely call to mind are the “days of smoke and fire,” said Marshall Director Joseph Pelfrey, referring to the work conducted at Marshall to enable NASA’s launch of the first Mercury-Redstone rocket and the Saturn V which lifted Americans to the Moon, the inaugural space shuttle mission, and the shuttle flights that carried the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and elements of the International Space Station to orbit. Most recently, he said they’re likely to recall the thunder of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System), rising into the sky during Artemis I.
NASA’s Space Launch System, carrying the Orion spacecraft, launches on the Artemis I flight test on Nov. 16, 2022. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, led development and oversees all work on the new flagship rocket, building on its storied history of propulsion and launch vehicle design dating back to the Redstone and Saturn rockets. The most powerful rocket ever built, SLS is the backbone of NASA’s Artemis program, set to carry explorers back to the Moon in 2026, help establish a permanent outpost there, and make possible new, crewed journeys to Mars in the years to come.NASA/Bill Ingalls Yet all the other days are equally meaningful, Pelfrey said, highlighting a steady stream of milestones reflecting the work of Marshall civil service employees, contractors, and industry partners through the years – as celebrated in a new “65 Years of Marshall” timeline.
“The total sum of hours, contributed by tens of thousands of men and women across Marshall’s history, is incalculable,” Pelfrey said. “Together they’ve blended legacy with innovation – advancing space exploration and scientific discovery through collaboration, engineering excellence, and technical solutions. They’ve invented and refined technologies that make it possible to safely live and work in space, to explore other worlds, and to help safeguard our own.
The total sum of hours, contributed by tens of thousands of men and women across Marshall’s history, is incalculable.
Joseph Pelfrey
Marshall Space Flight Center Director
“Days of smoke and fire may be the most visible signs, but it’s the months and years of preparation and the weeks of post-launch scientific discovery that mark the true dedication, sacrifice, and monumental achievements of this team.”
Reflecting on Marshall history
Marshall’s primary task in the 1960s was the development and testing of the rockets that carried the first American astronaut to space, and the much larger and more technically complex Saturn rocket series, culminating in the mighty Saturn V, which carried the first human explorers to the Moon’s surface in 1969.
“Test, retest, and then fly – that’s what we did here at the start,” said retired engineer Harry Craft, who was part of the original U.S. Army rocket development team that moved from Fort Bliss, Texas, to Huntsville to begin NASA’s work at Marshall. “And we did it all without benefit of computers, working out the math with slide rules and pads of paper.”
The 138-foot-long first stage of the Saturn V rocket is lowered to the ground following a successful static test firing in fall 1966 at the S-1C test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Saturn V, developed and managed at Marshall, was a multi-stage, multi-engine launch vehicle that stood taller than the Statue of Liberty and lofted the first Americans to the Moon. Its success helped position Marshall as an aerospace leader in propulsion, space systems, and launch vehicle development.NASA “Those were exciting times,” retired test engineer Parker Counts agreed. He joined Marshall in 1963 to conduct testing of the fully assembled and integrated Saturn first stages. It wasn’t uncommon for work weeks to last 10 hours a day, plus weekend shifts when deadlines were looming.
Counts said Dr. Wernher von Braun, Marshall’s first director, insisted staff in the design and testing organizations be matched with an equal number of engineers in Marshall’s Quality and Reliability Assurance Laboratory.
“That checks-and-balances engineering approach led to mission success for all 32 of the Saturn family of rockets,” said Counts, who went on to support numerous other propulsion programs before retiring from NASA in 2003.
“We worked with the best minds and best equipment available, pushing the technology every day to deliver the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century,” said instrumentation and electronics test engineer Willie Weaver, who worked at Marshall from 1960 to 1988 – and remains a tour guide at its visitor center, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
We worked with the best minds and best equipment available, pushing the technology every day to deliver the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century.
Willie Weaver
Former Marshall Space Flight Center Employee
The 1970s at Marshall were a period of transition and expanded scientific study, as NASA ended the Apollo Program and launched the next phase of space exploration. Marshall provided critical work on the first U.S. space station, Skylab, and led propulsion element development and testing for NASA’s Space Shuttle Program.
Marshall retiree Jim Odom, a founding engineer who got his start launching NASA satellites in the run-up to Apollo, managed the Space Shuttle External Tank project. The role called for weekly trips to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, which has been managed by Marshall since NASA acquired the government facility in 1961. The shuttle external tanks were manufactured in the same bays there where NASA and its contractors built the Saturn rockets.
This photograph shows the liquid hydrogen tank and liquid oxygen tank for the Space Shuttle external tank (ET) being assembled in the weld assembly area of the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF). The ET provides liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the Shuttle’s three main engines during the first eight 8.5 minutes of flight. At 154-feet long and more than 27-feet in diameter, the ET is the largest component of the Space Shuttle, the structural backbone of the entire Shuttle system, and the only part of the vehicle that is not reusable. The ET is manufactured at the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, Louisiana, by the Martin Marietta Corporation under management of the Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA “We didn’t have cellphones or telecon capabilities yet,” Odom recalled. “I probably spent more time with the pilot of the twin-engine plane in those days than I did with my wife.”
Marshall’s shuttle propulsion leadership led to the successful STS-1 mission in 1981, launching an era of orbital science exemplified by NASA’s Spacelab program.
“Spacelab demonstrated that NASA could continue to achieve things no one had ever done before,” said Craft, who served as mission manager for Spacelab 1 in 1983 – a highlight of his 40-year NASA career. “That combination of science, engineering, and global partnership helped shape our goals in space ever since.”
Engineers in the X-ray Calibration Facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, work to integrate elements of the Chandra X-ray Observatory in this March 1997 photo. Chandra was lifted to orbit by space shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, the culmination of two decades of telescope optics, mirror, and spacecraft development and testing at Marshall. In the quarter century since, Chandra has delivered nearly 25,000 detailed observations of neutron stars, supernova remnants, black holes, and other high-energy objects, some as far as 13 billion light-years distant. Marshall continues to manage the program for NASA. NASA Bookended by the successful Hubble and Chandra launches, the 1990s also saw Marshall deliver the first U.S. module for the International Space Station, signaling a transformative new era of human spaceflight.
Odom, who retired in 1989 as associate administrator for the space station at NASA Headquarters, reflects on his three-decade agency career with pride.
“It was a great experience, start to finish, working with the teams in Huntsville and New Orleans and our partners nationwide and around the globe, meeting each new challenge, solving the practical, day-to-day engineering and technology problems we only studied about in college,” he said.
Shrouded for transport, a 45-foot segment of the International Space Station’s “backbone” truss rolls out of test facilities at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in July 2000, ready to be flown to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch. Marshall played a key role in the development, testing, and delivery of the truss and other critical space station modules and structural elements, as well as the station’s air and water recycling systems and science payload hardware. Marshall’s Payload Operations Integration Center also continues to lead round-the-clock space station science. NASA That focus on human spaceflight solutions continued into the 21st century. Marshall delivered additional space station elements and science hardware, refined its air and water recycling systems, and led round-the-clock science from the Payload Operations Integration Center. Marshall scientists also managed the Gravity Probe Band Hinode missions and launched NASA’s SERVIR geospatial observation system. Once primary space stationconstruction – and the 40-year shuttle program – concluded in the 2010s, Marshall took on oversight of NASA’s Space Launch System, led James Webb Space Telescope mirror testing, and delivered the orbiting Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer.
As the 2020s continue, Marshall meets each new challenge with enthusiasm and expertise, preparing for the highly anticipated Artemis II crewed launch and a host of new science and discovery missions – and buoyed by strong industry partners and by the Huntsville community, which takes pride in being home to “Rocket City USA.”
“Humanity is on an upward, outward trajectory,” Pelfrey said. “And day after day, year after year, Marshall is setting the course to explore beyond tomorrow’s horizon.”
Read more about Marshall and its 65-year history:
https://www.nasa.gov/marshall
Hannah Maginot
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
hannah.l.maginot@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Feb 24, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away.ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray The universe is a dusty place, as this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image featuring swirling clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula reveals. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Tarantula Nebula is the most productive star-forming region in the nearby universe, home to the most massive stars known.
The nebula’s colorful gas clouds hold wispy tendrils and dark clumps of dust. This dust is different from ordinary household dust, which may include bits of soil, skin cells, hair, and even plastic. Cosmic dust is often comprised of carbon or of molecules called silicates, which contain silicon and oxygen. The data in this image was part of an observing program that aims to characterize the properties of cosmic dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other nearby galaxies.
Dust plays several important roles in the universe. Even though individual dust grains are incredibly tiny, far smaller than the width of a single human hair, dust grains in disks around young stars clump together to form larger grains and eventually planets. Dust also helps cool clouds of gas so that they can condense into new stars. Dust even plays a role in making new molecules in interstellar space, providing a venue for individual atoms to find each other and bond together in the vastness of space.
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Spies a Spiral That May Be Hiding an Imposter
The spiral galaxy UGC 5460 shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. UGC 5460 sits about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Jacobson-Galán, A. Filippenko, J. Mauerhan
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The sparkling spiral galaxy gracing this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is UGC 5460, which sits about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This image combines four different wavelengths of light to reveal UGC 5460’s central bar of stars, winding spiral arms, and bright blue star clusters. Also captured in the upper left-hand corner is a far closer object: a star just 577 light-years away in our own galaxy.
UGC 5460 has hosted two recent supernovae: SN 2011ht and SN 2015as. It’s because of these two stellar explosions that Hubble targeted this galaxy, collecting data for three observing programs that aim to study various kinds of supernovae.
SN 2015as was as a core-collapse supernova: a cataclysmic explosion that happens when the core of a star far more massive than the Sun runs out of fuel and collapses under its own gravity, initiating a rebound of material outside the core. Hubble observations of SN 2015as will help researchers understand what happens when the expanding shockwave of a supernova collides with the gas that surrounds the exploded star.
SN 2011ht might have been a core-collapse supernova as well, but it could also be an impostor called a luminous blue variable. Luminous blue variables are rare stars that experience eruptions so large that they can mimic supernovae. Crucially, luminous blue variables emerge from these eruptions unscathed, while stars that go supernova do not. Hubble will search for a stellar survivor at SN 2011ht’s location with the goal of revealing the explosion’s origin.
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Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated Feb 21, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
Before Apollo astronauts set foot upon the Moon, much remained unknown about the lunar surface. While most scientists believed the Moon had a solid surface that would support astronauts and their landing craft, a few believed a deep layer of dust covered it that would swallow any visitors. Until 1964, no closeup photographs of the lunar surface existed, only those obtained by Earth-based telescopes.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed the Ranger program, a series of spacecraft designed to return closeup images before impacting on the Moon’s surface. Ranger 7 first accomplished that goal in July 1964. On Feb. 17, 1965, its successor Ranger 8 launched toward the Moon, and three days later returned images of the Moon. The mission’s success helped the country meet President John F. Kennedy’s goal of a human Moon landing before the end of the decade.
Schematic diagram of the Ranger 8 spacecraft, showing its major components. NASA/JPL The television system aboard Ranger 8 showing its six cameras.NASA/JPL. Launch of Ranger 8. NASA. Ranger 8 lifted off from Cape Kennedy, now Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Feb. 17, 1965. The Atlas-Agena rocket first placed the spacecraft into Earth orbit before sending it on a lunar trajectory. The next day, the spacecraft carried out a mid-course correction, and on Feb. 20, Ranger 8 reached the Moon. The spacecraft’s six cameras turned on as planned, about eight minutes earlier than its predecessor to obtain images comparable in resolution to ground-based photographs for calibration purposes. Ranger 8 took its first photograph at an altitude of 1,560 miles, and during its final 23 minutes of flight, the spacecraft sent back 7,137 images of the lunar surface. The last image, taken at an altitude of 1,600 feet and 0.28 seconds before Ranger 8 impacted at 1.67 miles per second, had a resolution of about five feet. The spacecraft impacted 16 miles from its intended target in the Sea of Tranquility, ending a flight of 248,900 miles. Scientists had an interest in this area of the Moon as a possible landing zone for a future human landing, and indeed Apollo 11 landed 44 miles southeast of the Ranger 8 impact site in July 1969.
Ranger 8’s first image from an altitude of 1,560 miles.NASA/JPL. Ranger 8 image from an altitude of 198 miles, showing craters Ritter and Sabine.NASA/JPL. Ranger 8’s final images, taken at an altitude as low as 1,600 feet. NASA/JPL. One more Ranger mission followed, Ranger 9, in March 1965. Television networks broadcast Ranger 9’s images of the Alphonsus crater and the surrounding area “live” as the spacecraft approached its impact site in the crater – letting millions of Americans see the Moon up-close as it happened. Based on the photographs returned by the last three Rangers, scientists felt confident to move on to the next phase of robotic lunar exploration, the Surveyor series of soft landers. The Ranger photographs provided confidence that the lunar surface could support a soft-landing and that the Sea of Tranquility presented a good site for the first human landing. A little more than four years after the final Ranger images, Apollo 11 landed the first humans on the Moon.
Impact sites of Rangers 7, 8, and 9. NASA/JPL. The Ranger 8 impact crater, marked by the blue circle, photographed by Lunar Orbiter 2 in 1966.NASA/JPL. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the Ranger 8 impact crater, taken in 2012 at a low sun angle.NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University. The impacts of the Ranger probes left visible craters on the lunar surface, later photographed by orbiting spacecraft. Lunar Orbiter 2 and Apollo 16 both imaged the Ranger 8 impact site at relatively low resolution in 1966 and 1972, respectively. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the crash site in greater detail in 2012.
Watch a brief video about the Ranger 8 impact on the Moon.
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