Science @ Goddard
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is a major U.S. laboratory for building and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft. Goddard manages many of NASA's Earth and space science missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Earth Observing System satellites, and the Sun-watching STEREO spacecraft.
Goddard's 34 major buildings form a campus in Greenbelt, Maryland, 6.5 miles from the nation's capital. Spread out over 1,270 acres and 3 million square feet of working space, researchers and engineers develop and test new scientific instruments for flight in space, on rockets or balloons, or at ground level.
Unique test facilities allow Goddard to simulate the rigors of space, ensuring that spacecraft survive to complete their missions. This includes a 40-foot-high vacuum chamber, a giant centrifuge, and an acoustic test chamber to simulate the roar and rattle of liftoff. Contaminant-free "clean rooms" allow prelaunch checks. Goddard is also an important hub for storing and sharing its scientific data.
More than 8,500 scientists, engineers, and technologists at Goddard provide the world's researchers a unique vantage point to study the Earth, the Sun, the solar system, and the vast universe beyond.
