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NASA classic meatball logo with the text Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate.

Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

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    • Mechanical Systems Division (MSD)
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      • ISTD Branches
    • Electrical Engineering Division (EED)
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    • Software Engineering Division (SED)
      • SED Branches
    • Mission Engineering & System Analysis (MESA)
      • MESA Branches
  • Careers
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  • About ETD
    • About ETD
    • Key Personnel
    • Images
    • Multimedia
    • ETD Featured Stories
  • Capabilities
    • ETD Capabilities
    • Capabilities Listing
    • Facilities Listing
    • core Flight System
    • Flight Dynamics Facility
    • Integrated Design Center
  • Partnerships
  • Our Work
    • Our Work
    • New Technology
    • Flight Projects In Development
    • Flight Projects In Operations
    • Internal Research and Development
  • Divisions
    • Mechanical Systems Division (MSD)
      • MSD Branches
    • Instrument Systems & Technology Division (ISTD)
      • ISTD Branches
    • Electrical Engineering Division (EED)
      • EED Branches
    • Software Engineering Division (SED)
      • SED Branches
    • Mission Engineering & System Analysis (MESA)
      • MESA Branches
  • Careers
    • Internships
Lifting James Webb Space Telescope

ETD is building the future.

The NASA Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate (ETD)

Where engineering and science partner to build the systems of tomorrow, today.

Learn More
Mechanical Engineering and Integration Technician

ETD is building the future.

The NASA Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate (ETD)

Where engineering and science partner to build the systems of tomorrow, today.

Learn More
Black Brant Sounding Rocket Testing

ETD is building the future.

The NASA Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate (ETD)

Where engineering and science partner to build the systems of tomorrow, today.

Learn More
PACE in a MESA Lab

ETD is building the future.

The NASA Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate (ETD)

Where engineering and science partner to build the systems of tomorrow, today.

Learn More
BurstCube Thermal Vacuum Test

ETD is building the future.

The NASA Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate (ETD)

Where engineering and science partner to build the systems of tomorrow, today.

Learn More
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Lifting James Webb Space Telescope
Mechanical Engineering and Integration Technician
Black Brant Sounding Rocket Testing
PACE in a MESA Lab
BurstCube Thermal Vacuum Test
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Building what has never been built before,
to discover the unknown.

At Goddard, the engineering workforce within ETD develops and builds new technologies that enable spaceflight missions. The engineering staff builds and oversees satellites, instruments, and their operation. The workforce’s new products and processes infuse into the space economy to benefit American technological advancement, capability, and dominance.


Graphic for the cover of NASA's Fiscal Year 2025 budget request, showing an artist's view of the Earth's horizon and atmosphere from space, the Moon, Mars and a field of stars.

Expanding Engineering Boundaries

Expanding today’s engineering boundaries through the application of emerging technologies to develop high-performance, cost-effective solutions to the most challenging problems.

End-to-end Science Mission Operation

The Engineering & Technology Directorate designs missions, builds satellites, develops instruments, and operates spacecrafts, in addition to acquiring and distributing scientific data globally.

Multidisciplinary Engineering Expertise

Provides multidisciplinary engineering expertise for the development of cutting-edge science and exploration systems and technologies.

Mission Driven Capabilities

Engineering supports a diverse range of space flight activities. ETD teams work together across disciplines to ensure missions are successful technically and we deliver on our commitments.

Enabling NASA’s Mission

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Greenbelt campus is home to the nation’s largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists who conceive, design and build new technology to study the solar system and universe.



  • The largest organization at Goddard is the Engineering and Technology Directorate. It is home to approximately 1,300 civil servants and 2,000 contractors who provide multidisciplinary engineering expertise to critical NASA missions. 
  • The ETD’s areas of expertise include advanced technology, hands-on experience for successfully executing space science missions, and a world-class systems engineering approach.
  • At Goddard, it all begins and ends with science. We derive and share information, solutions, and technology for the benefit of all NASA, the Nation, and the World.

Our Work

The Engineering and Technology Directorate (ETD) is the engine that powers Goddard. ETD provides multi-disciplinary engineering expertise for the development of cutting-edge science and exploration systems and technologies.


Artist rendering of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
In Development

Roman Space Telescope

PACE's primary sensor, Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), Engineering Test Unit (ETU) rolls into the TVAC chamber.
In Operation

PACE

Artist's rendering of NOAA's GOES-T, which will provide coverage of the western U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, the eastern and central Pacific Ocean to New Zealand. (Image credit: NOAA)
In Operation

GOES-U

DAVINCI Probe Descending
In Development

DAVINCI

ETD Featured Stories


Explore featured stories, engineering news and information from leadership teams, the ETD’s work, education programs and outreach.

More ETD Featured Stories

Key Portion of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Clears Thermal Vacuum Test

The Roman Space Telescope Outer Barrel Assembly/Solar Array Sunshield System/Deployable Aperture Assembly, known as OSD, completed Thermal Vacuum testing in the Building 10 Space Environment...
Read More

NICER Regains Additional Capabilities Thanks to Engineering Teams’ Detector Reconfigurations

A NASA X-ray telescope on the International Space Station called NICER, or Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, has regained additional daytime observation capabilities...
Read More

Wallops Collaborates on Groundbreaking Super Pressure Balloon Test Flights

NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has returned to Wānaka, New Zealand, for two scheduled flights to test and qualify the agency’s super pressure balloon technology. These stadium-sized, heavy-lift balloons will travel the...
Read More

Goddard’s Roman Team Successfully Integrates the Deployable Aperture Cover

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully integrated the mission’s deployable aperture cover — a visor-like sunshade that will help prevent unwanted light from entering the telescope — to the outer...
Read More

Goddard’s Electronics Group Designs NASA 3D-Printed Antenna

In fall 2024, NASA developed and tested a 3D-printed antenna to demonstrate a low-cost capability to communicate science data to Earth. The antenna, tested in flight using an atmospheric weather balloon, could open the...
Read More

Very Cold Detectors Reveal the Very Hot Universe and Kick Off a New Era in X-ray Astronomy

X-rays are radiated by matter hotter than one million Kelvin, and high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy can tell us about the composition of the matter and how fast and in what direction it is moving. Quantum calorimeters are...
Read More
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Goddard Facilities

  • Aerial view of the coastal launch range of Wallops Flight Facility, showing a blue Atlantic Ocean on the right; white buildings along a tan coastline back up to a green, marshy landscape

    Wallops Flight Facility

  • Front of Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility in the early evening.

    Katherine Johnson IV&V Facility

  • Aerial view of White Sands test Facility

    White Sands Test Facility

  • Scientific balloon, which is a clear, upside down teardrop shade, with a long tube leading to it being used to inflate it.

    Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility

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ABOUT ETD

The Engineering & Technology Directorate at Goddard designs missions, builds satellites and instruments, operates and controls spacecrafts, and acquires/distributes data to the world-wide science community. ETD data products are used to conduct research in Earth and Space Sciences that benefit both the nation and the world.

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Page Last Updated: May 21, 2025

Page Editor: ETD Web Team

Responsible NASA Official: Hector Dietsch

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