Redstone Arsenal

Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base and census-designated place in Madison County, Alabama, adjacent to Huntsville, Alabama, in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. It is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The arsenal hosts over 75 tenant agencies including many that are part of the Department of Defense such as the United States Space Command, NASA's largest field center (the Marshall Space Flight Center), and Department of Justice agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The arsenal has a government and contractor workforce that averages 36,000 to 40,000 personnel daily. The base has benefited from decisions by the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission and has a residential population of 837 as of 2020.

Established during World War II as a chemical manufacturing facility, in the immediate post-war era the arsenal was used for research and development by former Nazi German rocket scientists who were brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. The team first worked on ballistic missiles, starting with derivatives of the V-2 rocket, before moving on to a series of ever larger designs.

In 1956, the Army was relieved of most of its ballistic missiles in favor of similar weapons operated by the US Air Force. The German design team became part of the newly founded civilian NASA. The Cold War had moved to space, and the U.S. intended to compete with the Soviet Union there and across the globe. The arsenal served as the primary site for space launch vehicle design and testing into the 1960s.