In March 2024, Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched the “Texas Space Commission,” which will lead efforts to position the Lone Star State as a national leader in the space industry. Texas is already home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, while it was at Rice University where President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would reach the moon by the end of the 1960s.
Last month, the TSC board voted to conditionally approve grant applications that totaled $9.7 million for three proposed projects including up to $5 million for the City of Midland to build the first public rocket site in West Texas; along with $4.5 million going to ILC Astrospace LLC in Houston, and up to $250,000 for SylLab Systems in Plano. ILC is developing a prototype space suit, while SylLab is continuing work on its system to update satellite software securely.
“Today’s round of awards showcases the variety of technologies, capabilities, and locations of the space industry across Texas to enable a robust ecosystem,” said Gwen Griffin, chair of the TSC board. “Each represents unique contributions to the Texas economy.”
Total investment in the space industry has topped $126 million of the $150 million that the Texas Legislature appropriated in 2023 for the state’s Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research fund, the San Antonio Express-News reported earlier this week.
The rocket launch and landing complex outside of Midland is touted to support suborbital launches and reentries from multiple users. It will be the third rocket launch site in Texas, operating along with SpaceX’s Starbase in South Texas and Blue Origin’s complex that is outside of Van Horn.
Expanding NASA’s Footprint
Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers began a push to move the NASA headquarters from Washington, D.C., to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. The 1,620-acre facility was founded in 1961, and it currently hosts NASA’s mission control and astronaut training operations. More than 12,000 employees work at the complex’s more than 100 buildings. It directly and indirectly supports more than 52,000 public and private jobs and generates $4.7 billion for the local economy.
However, Florida, home to the Space Coast including the Kennedy Space Center, and Ohio, home to the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, are also vying to be home for the space agency.
The lease for NASA’s D.C. offices expires in 2028, and Republican Senator Ted Cruz and GOP Congressman Brian Babin, whose district included JSC, wrote a letter to President Donald Trump expressing the reasons why Houston should be considered over the locations in the Sunshine and Buckeye states.
“A central location among NASA’s centers and the geographical center of the United States, Houston offers the ideal location for NASA to return to its core mission of space exploration and to do so at a substantially lower operating cost than in Washington, D.C.,” the letter, which was signed by 25 other Texas Republican lawmakers, stated.
The letter further highlighted the “seismic disconnect” that exists between NASA’s current headquarters and JSC, which has resulted in “bureaucratic micromanagement.”
Last week, the TSC held a closed-door meeting that discussed economic incentives to bring additional NASA and Department of Defense space-based offices or other facilities to the Lone Star State.
Golden Dome Command Center
In addition to NASA potentially, but not absolutely, needing to move its HQ, the United States Space Force – the sixth and newest branch of the U.S. military – will need a home for its headquarters for the proposed Golden Dome for America missile defense program.
In addition, Space Force has yet to finalize the location of the Space Futures Command (SFC), which could include a Concepts and Technologies Center, and a new Wargaming Center to be led by Space Delta 10. DEL10 is currently located in interim facilities at Patrick Space Force Base (SFB) and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
