It has a mixture of Fortune 500 companies, local and international high-tech enterprises, U.S. space and defense agencies, business incubators and competitive higher-education institutions.

The Park's major industries are aerospace, defense, engineering, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, software development, information technology and cybersecurity.

[2] In 1961, Milton K. Cummings, then president of Brown Engineering Company, and Joseph C. Moquin, his later successor, selected a tract of undeveloped land on the western edge of Huntsville for building a new headquarters.

Cummings and Moquin, with the support of rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun, proposed that the City of Huntsville zone the area as a research park district.

The UAH Foundation owned a large portion of land in the research park district, and served as a major promoter of development.