Named for American rocketry pioneer Dr. Robert H. Goddard, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center was established on May 1, 1959, as NASA’s first space flight complex.
In the 1960s, when this image was taken, Goddard focused on the development of tracking and communication facilities and capabilities for both the scientific satellites and the manned space flight program. Goddard became the hub of the massive, international tracking and communications network that involved aircraft, supertankers converted into mobile communications units, and a wide diversity of ground stations. A duplicate mission control center was also built at Goddard in case the computers at the main control room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas failed for any reason.
> About Dr. Robert H. Goddard
Image Credit: NASA