Houston, We Have a Space Center
NASA’s official visitor center opened in 1992
The first word spoken from the moon was the name of the first president of the Republic of Texas, and two things happened in 1908 that, more than six decades later, set that in motion. In early 1908 the head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Princeton University, Edgar Odell Lovett, agreed to move to Texas to head a new educational institute that would become Rice University. Also in August 1908, a child was born near Stonewall, Texas, in a farmhouse on the Pedernales River to Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. and Rebekah Baines. They named him Lyndon.
Jump forward to 1961, shortly after President John F. Kennedy had announced that the United States would put a
man on the moon by the end of the decade. A list of potential locations for a new space center quickly narrowed
to a spot near Houston’s Rice University, reflecting the pool of talent at the educational institution. Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson was assumed to play a major role in the decision, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Manned Spacecraft Center officially opened in September 1963.
A centerpiece of the facil- ity was and is the Mission Control Center, which has HOUSTON been the primary flight control center for all U.S.- manned space missions from Project Gemini (June 1965) forward. It was to that control center on July 20, 1969, that astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke the first words from the surface of the moon: “Houston,” Armstrong announced. “Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” The phrase resounded around the world, confirming that Apollo 11 mission commander Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to land on the moon.
People from around the globe were immediately interested in visiting Houston to see NASA’s space center, but the facility wasn’t designed to accommodate large numbers of visitors.The facility was renamed in honor of the late President Lyndon B. Johnson by an act of the U.S. Senate on Feb. 19, 1973. “JSC Building 2” housed a modest visitor center until the nonprofit Manned Space Flight Education Foundation opened Space Center Houston (SCH) in 1992 as the official visitor center.
ROCKET SCIENCE Visitors study the Apollo 17 Command Module, which carried the astronauts back to Earth.
“Space Center Houston has shared the thrill and wonder of space exploration with guests from around the world since opening in 1992,” says William T. Harris, president and CEO of the science and space learning center. “They come to explore our scientific exhibits, space artifacts, educational programs and special events.”
SCH will be the first of four stops of a new exhibit featuring the Apollo 11 command module, which will leave the Smithsonian for the first time since 1971 on a national tour. It will be the only location where visitors can see the space capsules for both the first and last lunar landings. The nonprofit Space Center Houston is the home of the Apollo 17 command module, the last mission to land on the moon. The awe-inspiring “Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission” on display Oct. 14, 2017, through March 18, 2018, is part of the nonprofit’s 25th anniversary celebration.
“There has never been a more exciting time for our nonprofit center,” Harris says, “with major new exhibits opening, record-breaking attendance and top industry awards.”
The focus of the center has always looked to the future. “We’re moving swiftly to become the world’s leading science and space learning center,” Harris adds. “We continue to expand our extraordinary educational programs and provide exceptional learning experiences to more than one million visitors annually.”
