MIT Lincoln Laboratory

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology manages for the United States Department of Defense. It was established in 1951, when leading MIT scientists moved to the laboratory to head the nation's first air defense program, and its mission has stayed the same since: technology in support of national security. What sets it apart from many national laboratories is its focus on building operational prototypes of the systems it designs. Its research areas include air, missile and maritime defense, communication systems, space systems and technology, and civil space systems and technology. Its engineers fabricated the ground and space terminals behind the world's fastest data download from a NASA satellite orbiting the Moon, and the laboratory works on monitoring activity in space. It occupies about 75 acres on the eastern edge of Hanscom Air Force Base in Lexington, Massachusetts.