1982

Air Force Space Technology Center stands up at Kirtland AFB

Functioning as a coordinating agency similar to the previous Special Weapons Command for the development of space technology, the new Space Technology Center set out to maintain a close cohesion with operational commands, product divisions, system program offices, NASA and other government agencies, and private defense contractors. Under the new organizational realignment, the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, which still existed here at Kirtland, the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory at Hanscom in Massachusetts, and Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at Edwards in California now reported directly to the Space Technology Center, alluding to the later alignment of space systems under the Space Vehicles Directorate of AFRL in New Mexico.