The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center is established as the missile and rocket operations of the U.S. Army (specifically, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the Army Ordnance Missile Command) are transferred to the civilian National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. The center, just outside Huntsville, Alabama, is on the grounds of the Redstone Arsenal, set up during World War II as a weaponry plant. Its first director was Dr. Wernher von Braun (left), a German-born rocket engineer who, along with dozens of other German scientists, began working for the United States after WWII. In the years to follow, Marshall would be at the forefront of the U.S. spaceflight effort.
* MSFC summary (from Encylopedia of Alabama): @
* MSFC History Office website: @
* More about Redstone Arsenal (from globalsecurity.org): @
* "Redstone Arsenal Through the Years" (video): @
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