Facilities

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is located within the City of Greenbelt, Maryland, approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D. C. The suburban campus is situated approximately 1 mile northeast of the Capital Beltway/Interstate 495.

This NASA field center is a major U.S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft. The Center manages many of NASA's Earth Observation, Astronomy, and Space Physics missions. GSFC includes several other properties, most significantly the Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague, Virginia.

The GSFC Greenbelt Facility encompasses 514 ha (1,270 acres) and in addition to the Main Site, maintains the adjacent Magnetic Test Facility and Propulsion Research site; and the outlying sites, including the Antenna Performance Measuring range and the Optical Tracking and Ground Plane Facilities. NASA has ownership of 454 ha (1,121 acres) of land at Greenbelt. The remaining 60 ha (149 acres) are the outlying sites and are held by revocable lease from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Main Site of the Greenbelt Facility has the principal boundaries of Greenbelt Road to the south, Good Luck Road to the east, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to the west, and the agricultural land of the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) to the north.

This Main Site is separated and divided in a north-south direction by Soil Conservation Service Road (SCS Road) forming two distinct parcels of secured land, the East and West Campuses. Combined, these grounds form a campus environment including 33 major buildings providing more than 278,000 m sq (3,000,000 sq ft) of research, development and office space. GSFC is unique in that these facilities provide for the construction and development of spacecraft software, scientific instruments as well as the spacecraft themselves.

The West Campus is where GSFC development originated and until recently was primarily concentrated. The buildings are typically laid out on grids relating to a network of roadways and resulting parking areas. There is a well-defined natural buffer at the perimeter of the West Campus, and areas of undeveloped woodlands within. The grounds provide a natural habitat for deer, geese, and other wildlife. The buildings generally are two to three stories high, often brick, and simply detailed. There are many on-site amenities which reinforce the campus-like atmosphere, including food services, health services, and recreation activities. The arrangement and placement of the buildings and amenities has created an environment encouraging free pedestrian circulation within reasonable travel distances.

The East Campus, which occupies approximately 170 ha (422 acres), hasa visual character very different from that of the West Campus and is heavily influenced by its natural, relatively undeveloped setting. This setting offers an array of visually positive features including rolling topography, dense tree stands, and native flora.

The northern area of the East Campus contains several, sparsely developed buildings that are surrounded by wooded areas. These buildings support maintenance, utilities, tracking, or communication operations and typically have flat roofs and metal or masonry brick construction. For the most part, the design of these buildings reflects their functional use. Antennae, satellite dishes, and other communication equipment that support the operations of these facilities are also dispersed throughout this area. The wooded areas that surround these facilities currently serve as visual buffers to the activities and their locations.

The southern area of the East Campus has experienced much recent development. As the lead Center for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, GSFC has located this coordinated research effort in newly-constructed facilities on this site. These facilities include Building 32/ Earth Observing System Data Information System (EOSDIS) and Building 33/ Earth Systems Science Building (ESSB). In conjunction with this development, a new Central Chilled Water and Generator Plant, Building 31, has been constructed to serve the area.

Although occupying only a portion of the East Campus, these relatively large buildings have altered the visual character of the site. The remaining East Campus is still largely wooded, and any new facilities planned for this area will likely continue to change this visual character. Important issues in addressing the future of the East Campus are the unification of design elements; views onto the site from SCS Road, Good Luck Road and Greenbelt Road; integration of parking into the site; conservation of significant pockets of open space including wooded areas; and the creation of pedestrian linkages and a pedestrian scale environment appropriate to a campus environment.

For a more detailed view of GSFC's facilities and services, visit the Facilities Management Division Homepage.