NASA facilities

Ten field centers manage and execute NASA's programs and activities, with all other facilities assigned to the authority of at least one of these centers. In 2013, a report by the NASA Office of Inspector General recommended the creation of a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)-style process to consolidate underutilized facilities. The report found that at least 33 of NASA's 155 facilities were underutilized. NASA has ten field centers. Four were inherited from its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), two were transferred from the United States Army, and four were commissioned and built by the agency after its formation in 1958. Langley Research Center, located in Hampton, Virginia, was established in 1917 by NACA and is the oldest of NASA's field centers. The center is named after aeronautics researcher Samuel Langley. The center conducts research in aeronautics and spaceflight, with aeronautics accounting for the majority of its work.