\<COLOUR 1> MAIN FACILITIES: \<COLOUR 0> Headquarters, Washington DC Ames-Dryden research centres, Edwards Air Force Base, California Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama Vandenberg Air Force Base, California Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
\<COLOUR 1> COMMENTS: \<COLOUR 0> Initially, rocket development and launches in the US were in the hands of the military; Wernher von Braun's Army team built the rocket that launched the first US satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958; from October 1 that year, NASA assumed control of all civilian space activities in the USA.
