Marker unveiled in honor of founding of Marshall Space Center

Marshall Space Flight Center Director Robert Lightfoot, left, and Huntsville Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Vice President Charles Winters unveil the marker Wednesday morning near Redstone's Gate 9. WT Martin/HNW

(From release) Officials from NASA joined area dignitaries in unveiling a historical marker Wednesday morning in honor of the founding of the Marshall Space Center.

According to information from Marshall,  the marker is part of the Alabama Department of Tourism's "2010: Alabama's Year of Small Towns and Downtowns" program, which will place approximately 215 historic markers across the state this year. The goal of the effort is to celebrate the Alabama communities, institutions and events that have helped shape the state's culture and heritage.

The "Formation of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center" marker plaque is 32 inches wide and 44 inches long and weighs approximately 90 pounds.

The inscription follows:

"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)."