Download NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Fact Sheet. (PDF) »

The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is one of the largest and most diversified field centers of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Marshall Center has been a key contributor to significant NASA programs throughout the space agency's 45-plus-year history – from the 1961 flight of the first U.S. astronaut into space, to the Apollo missions exploring the moon, to the development and operation of America's space shuttle fleet, to the development of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the construction of the International Space Station.

The Marshall Center is poised for a key role as NASA and the nation prepare to carry out a bold and exciting new Vision for Space Exploration for human and robotic exploration of the solar system. This starts with a safe return to flight of the space shuttle and continues with trips to the moon in preparation for exploration of Mars and other destinations.

Furthering the Vision of Space Exploration

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., develops key space transportation and propulsion technologies; manages space shuttle propulsion elements and science on board the International Space Station; and pursues scientific breakthroughs in space that will improve human life here on Earth.

For over 40 years the Marshall Center and the community have demonstrated an expertise in end-to-end systems engineering and integration. This experience base has created a set of institutional capabilities critical to the success of the Vision for Space Exploration. These capabilities have been created and sustained through the development and management of a variety of systems, including launch vehicles, propulsion systems, and scientific spacecraft and research instruments.

The first step in that journey is to safely return the space shuttle to flight. During more than two decades of flight, the space shuttle has become a preeminent symbol of our nation's ingenuity and achievement. The Marshall Center is responsible for the shuttle's launch propulsion elements, including the main engines, external tank and solid rocket boosters. A dedicated team of government and contractor employees continues work to make the space shuttle as safe as possible for human access to space.

Tomorrow’s space transportation

In keeping with the Vision for Space Exploration, the Marshall Center is refocusing its efforts to develop technologies for tomorrow's exploration of the solar system. Marshall is leading the development and overall integration of the Crew Launch Vehicle, which will deliver the Crew Exploration Vehicle and its astronaut crew into space. Marshall is leading propulsion design, development, systems engineering, full integration of elements, and safety and mission assurance activities. Marshall also is responsible for near-term planning and future development of NASA’s follow-on heavy-lift launch vehicle and Earth departure stage, needed to leave Earth’s orbit to travel to the moon and beyond. The purpose of the heavy-lift vehicle is to carry cargo and components into space to support future lunar exploration missions.

Reaching NASA’s long-term space flight goals also will require sustaining current vehicle propulsion systems and component engineering, plus revolutionary aerospace technologies from advanced chemical, magnetic and propellant-free propulsion systems to all-new energy sources such as space solar power and high-energy electric propulsion. Breakthroughs are being pursued at Marshall through work in key propulsion and space vehicle design research and development areas intended to dramatically improve space transportation systems.

One of NASA's premier facilities for conducting advanced propulsion research, the Marshall Center's Propulsion Research Laboratory, opened in June 2004. Here, top NASA, industry and academic researchers pursue alternatives to conventional chemical propulsion systems and seek breakthrough technologies that will dramatically increase our ability to safely and routinely work and travel beyond Earth orbit.

Exploring space

The Vision for Space Exploration calls for NASA to return humans to the moon, where they will lay the groundwork for exploration missions to Mars and beyond. The work of the Marshall Center is vital to this effort: developing safe, affordable technologies to carry robotic and human missions to the far reaches of the solar system.

The Marshall Center continues to play a key role in International Space Station hardware development and science operations. Marshall also oversees the space station's Multipurpose Logistics Modules, which are used to move systems, experiment racks and other supplies to and from the Station, as well as the regenerative oxygen and water supplies for the space station.

The Payload Operations Center at Marshall is NASA's primary space station science command post. It coordinates all scientific and commercial experiments on the station and provides communications between researchers around the world and their on-board experiments.

The Marshall Center manages two extremely important spaceflight missions currently in orbit: the Gravity Probe B — a NASA fundamental physics mission to test two important predictions of Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity — launched in early 2004; and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in 1999 by the Space Shuttle Columbia on a long-duration mission to explore the violent and least understood processes of our Universe in the X-ray spectrum. The Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of NASA's great observatory missions.

Marshall's Space Optics Manufacturing Technology Center develops ultra-lightweight optics materials and fabrication technologies, and manages state-of-the-art test facilities. The center is developing new, advanced optics technologies for future space observatories to replace the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Tomorrow’s explorers

Since 2001, the Marshall Center has partnered with Alabama universities, industry and other federal agencies in the National Space Science and Technology Center. The Huntsville-based center is a collaborative effort that enables scientists, engineers and educators to share research and facilities. Marshall provides Earth, space science and technology expertise to the center.

With intensified commitment, NASA is inspiring the next generation of explorers by making a positive impact on the pipeline of students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Marshall's education programs reach teachers, students, parents and the community by providing a customized and sustained learning environment using NASA's most recent discoveries and latest technologies.

For more information about the Marshall Center, visit:
www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home

For the latest Marshall news, visit:
www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news