On September 8, 1960, President Dwight David Eisenhower formally dedicated the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as a new field installation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

President Eisenhower addressed guests and employees of the new NASA organization that had resulted from the Army transfer of 4,670 civil service employees and 1,840 acres of Redstone Arsenal property and facilities worth $100 million. The new NASA center was named for the late General George C. Marshall. Mrs. Marshall was among those who joined the President at the dedication. Dr. Wernher von Braun, who became the Center’s first Director, also participated.

The Marshall Center had been activated on July 1, 1960, as part of NASA, which had been established on October 1, 1958, by Congressional passage of the National Aeronautics and Space Act and charged with conducting the Nation’s space exploration programs. The nucleus of NASA was the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics later named the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).