Homeland security center opens in Bethpage

A Bethpage building where scientists built the spacecraft that carried men to the moon is becoming a hub for the development of homeland security technology.

Business leaders, politicians and others attended a dedication ceremony Friday for the Morrelly Homeland Security Center. It's located at a former Northrop Grumman site.

Catherine Morrelly of Southold dedicated the center. It is named for her husband C. Kenneth Morrelly, an engineer and business executive, who died Oct. 1 at age 64.

As president of the 300-member Long Island Forum for Technology, C. Kenneth Morrelly had been a major force in the creation of the center, which is to develop products and systems to help protect against terrorist attacks.

New York City Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano gave the keynote address.

Some government agencies and private businesses already are up and running in the center.

The center boasts state-of-the-art technology that would allow it to double as a "command and control" hub in a major disaster in New York or on the East Coast.

The 90,000-square-foot center is the former Grumman Plant 5. The lunar module was built there in the 1960s and '70s.