NASA Goddard Space Flight Center251

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center builds and operates most of NASA's science research satellites - such as the famous Hubble Space Telescope; manages their tracking and orbital operations; and provides instruments flown on other NASA and international space probes. Goddard is home to the Nation's largest organization of combined scientists and engineers dedicated to learning and sharing their knowledge of the Earth, solar system, and Universe. Visitors can learn more about Goddard missions and exploration in the Goddard Visitor Center.

The Visitor Center provides many unique programs and presentations that highlight Goddard's Earth and Space science, engineering, and technology work. Through exhibits, special events, lectures, model rocket launches, and children's programs, the Center helps Goddard achieve its mission to expand knowledge of the Earth and its environment, the solar system, and the universe through observations from space.

Numerous permanent exhibits explain the many programs at the Goddard Space Flight Center. There are interactive displays and models, as well as real examples of satellites and rocket flight hardware. The exhibit Science on a Sphere (SOS) is a visualization system that uses computers and video projectors to display animated data on a six-foot diameter suspended sphere. It shows anything from the rocky surface of the planet Mars, to the Hurricane season of 2005. Footprints, the first movie produced for Science on a Sphere, is enriched with powerful scenes and music, based on the concept of the human drive to discover.

A Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is designed to help understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. The SDO offers regular family programs throughout the year.