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Monday, November 28, 2016
Texas History Minute: teamed up to make sure that the Houston site would be approved and funded by Congress.
Dr. Ken Bridges Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor. He can be reached at drkenbridges@gmail.com. The history of space flight is still relatively young, but it has already resulted in incredible accomplishments for humanity and lasting benefits for the world. Texas has been a part of the space program nearly from the beginning, including serving as the home of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Construction was not completed on the facility until September 1963, not until the first American manned missions, the Mercury program, was nearing its end. However, by the following June, the Manned Spacecraft Center formally became Mission Control with the Gemini 4 manned mission. The Gemini program focused on orbital flights and some of the earliest spacewalks to see how human beings could work and cope with the rigors of space travel. Along the way, new groups of astronauts would receive part of their training at the Space Center. In the meantime, now-President Johnson made sure that exploration efforts had all the funding and political support it needed.
By 1966, the center had more than five thousand people working in fifteen buildings on a multitude of projects on nearly two thousand acres. It also served as Mission Control with In 1957, at the height of the Cold the Apollo missions starting in War, Americans were shocked 1968 as NASA prepared to send when the Soviet Union was able to men to the Moon. During the put an artificial satellite into orbit. Apollo flights which saw It prompted President Dwight D. astronauts walk on another world Eisenhower to call for expanded for the first time, astronauts science and math education and reported back to the facility at also for the creation of America’s each step, simply referring to the space exploration agency, NASA, center as “Houston.” Six the National Aeronautics and Space manned landings and four Administration. moonshots were directed from Houston. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson shared Eisenhower’s After Lyndon Johnson died in concerns about Soviet expansion January 1973, the center was into orbit, and Johnson quickly renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson became an outspoken supporter of Space Center in his memory. The the American space program. Space Center continued to expand, incorporating more While a launch center was soon research and training projects, built at Cape Canaveral, Florida, including the space shuttle NASA still needed an observation, program starting in the 1980s. flight control, and training center. Because of the orbital dynamics of By the 1990s, more than 19,000 potential manned missions, twenty people worked at the Space sites in the southernmost states Center, including more than one were considered. Leading Texas hundred astronauts. In 1992, a sites included Victoria and Corpus new visitor center was completed Christi. Three sites in the Houston at the facility. More than $50 area were considered before a billion in federal funding had selection committee made its final been appropriated for the facility choice. And Houston, given its by the time it reached its thirtieth well-developed infrastructure and anniversary in 1993, which had proximity to Rice University and resulted in billions of dollars the University of Houston, had being pumped into the local many factors working well in its economy. favor. Today, the LBJ Space Center On September 19, 1961, NASA remains an integral part of the announced the selection of the Houston economy and the Manned Spacecraft Center in cornerstone of NASA’s mission southeastern Harris County near to explore the universe. It will be Clear Lake. Johnson, at this point the focal point for future manned the vice-president and also NASA missions, including future chairman of the National trips to the Moon and even to Aeronautics and Space Council Mars. So much of the future is which oversaw NASA, and House built on the foundation of the Speaker Sam Rayburn of Bonham past.
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