after 33 years, this article is much more profound that you even give it credit for. I have lived here at KSC and worked on shuttle since its day in Palmdale with Rockwell. Soon the National Park Service will be leading tours through the historic – and empty – halls of the Johnson Space Center National Historic Site.īecause we just don’t care enough to do anything about it.

No, with the level of interest that our citizens and leaders have in JSC, I soon expect to see that facility in the hands of a different federal agency.

Nope, Houston does not deserve an orbiter because Houston doesn’t care.ĭon’t expect JSC and its mission control to be here forever just because we are entitle to them. Nobody gets excited nobody tries to bring new work here, a little lip service, no real effort. The City of Houston and the State of Texas have done, well, next to nothing. Thousands of high paid, white collar jobs are leaving the Clear Lake area as NASA and JSC wind down. Other states have strong programs to bring space investments to their states Texas has virtually nothing. When was the last time the Houston mayor bothered to visit JSC? Anybody remember? You can tell that Texas regards involvement with NASA as an entitlement by the evidence: when was the last time a sitting governor came to JSC? I know the answer: Ann Richards in 1995. A rally at city hall was poorly attended, too little, too late, and totally ineffective. Its hard to tell if Austin and the Texas Legislature even knew what was happening. The movers and shakers downtown barely lifted a finger. We got a limp editorial or two in the local newspaper. The local politicians gave lip service, some weak letters to the NASA administrator and little else. No disrespect to those who spearheaded the effort to bring the shuttle here, but the response was lackluster. Anything worthwhile is worth fighting for. We deserve JSC and the shuttle just because of who we are. Houston and Texas have come to regard NASA and JSC as entitlements. KSC is the only real competition for closest historical tie to the shuttle, no disrespect to Marshall, Stennis, Dryden or other NASA centers.īut Houston is blasé about the shuttles. Not that we don’t have a long history with the shuttle it was largely designed here the program was managed from here from the beginning to the end, every single mission was planned here, the astronauts who flew the shuttle are based here, trained here, live here. Houston didn’t get an orbiter because Houston didn’t deserve it. It’s hard to say what goes on inside the Washington beltway with any certainty.īut my suspicions lie closer to home. For example, this was the explanation of my old Rice classmate Annise Parker, her honor the Mayor of Houston.

Immediate reaction from many people in the Houston area was that the Orbiter disposition decision was politically tainted.

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