By Richard Tew NASA/Technology Correspondent for The Post Newspaper
The Johnson Space Center (JSC), recently celebrated its fifty year anniversary since having its name changed from the Manned Spaceflight Program. The iconic space program campus continues to help develop human space flight now and into the future.
In 1958, NASA was formed as the U.S.’ Fledgling space program. Shortly thereafter, a facility was needed to help develop technologies for developing the Apollo program.
Albert Thomas, who represented Texas’ 8th district in the U.S. House of Representatives, first proposed the land JSC sits on to the Atomic Energy Commission in1956 to see if they would have an interest in putting a research lab on part of the site. When they declined the offer, he turned to NASA to see if they would be interested in locating in Houston.
NASA researched some 23 different locations around the country and was originally considering a site near Tampa, FL. before settling on the 1,000 acre tract of land located northeast of Webster and across the street from Nassau Bay.
Given its proximity to Houston, its developing culture, acclaimed universities and burgeoning business environment, a skilled labor force and the proximity to Galveston Bay it was given the green light for the future Manned Space Program in 1961. An additional 620 acres would be added to the site later. NASA now had a home to develop the new facility.
Pictures of the land prior to construction depict a common landscape for the sprawling tract of land adjacent to Clear Lake in the mid-twentieth century: grasslands with clumps of trees, cattle, a windmill and an aging wooden building. Development in the region was sparse. Most cities in the area were of the one stop light variety. They would slowly develop into the interconnected urban network they form today.
NASA Human Spaceflight Historian Dr. Jennifer Ross-Nazzal says employees of NASA began settling the still rural area and found the lack of shops, eateries and businesses required them to travel to neighboring Houston or Galveston.
“A lot of people talked about how isolated the area was. You know today, we look at Clear Lake, it’s just part of the metropolitan area of Houston but it was in a rural area at that point,” said Ross-Nazzal. “A lot of people who moved out here found that a lot of things they had gotten used to where they were from.”
Officially opening in 1964, the campus featured a modern university-like look and feel, says Ross-Nazzal.
“The people who were involved with building the campus really wanted it to feel like a campus-like facility,” said Ross-Nazzal. “They also wanted to inspire their employees. They didn’t want it to be just like a manufacturing facility where there weren’t any windows; there was nothing to look at. They were thinking about how they could inspire their engineers and designers. They thought a campus would do that.”
In February of 1973, after the passing of President Lyndon B. Johnson, then U.S. Senator from Texas Lloyd Bentsen sponsored Joint Resolution 37, which proposed changing the name of the campus from the Manned Space Program to the “Johnson Space Center.” The resolution was signed by then-President Richard Nixon.
Nixon lauded Johnson’s life-long support of NASA during the renaming process.
“Few men in our time have better understood the value of space exploration than Lyndon Johnson,” said President Nixon after the signing.
The JSC of today finds itself again helping lead the U.S. back to the Moon, a feat which hasn’t been replicated since Apollo 17, some fifty years ago. This time the Moon will be the springboard for journeys to Mars and beyond.
When he’s not writing about NASA and related technology, Richard Tew teaches Irish dancing to students from 3 years old to adults in Clear Lake. Learn more at http://www.tew-academy.org
Cutline: The Johnson Space Center covers 1,620 acres and helps lead the way in both crewed and uncrewed spaceflight and related research. NASA photo
