Blast o From the cover
Key players
The full story
At the heart of the industry in the area is NASA’s Houston-based Johnson Space Center, which, in addition to employing more than 10,000 people, has several plans and projects that have either begun or are set to begin in the near future. The center will host a few simulated missions to Mars, such as the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, Campaign 7, which began in January. Another project, expected to last a year, will see a four-person volunteer crew work inside a 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habit, according to a February news release from the agency. That project could begin in spring 2025, and NASA is looking for potential volunteers. Meanwhile, plans for actual space travel could nd a home in the agency’s Artemis missions, which, while delayed until 2025, could take astronauts around the moon, to the moon’s south pole and eventually to a new space station, named Gateway, that NASA is working to launch in 2025 with the help of other space agencies. Those priorities are re ected in its budget over the past decade, which has seen more resources dedicated to exploration, according to budget documents. While NASA’s budget overall has increased by about 40% from scal years 2014-15 to 2022-23, the exploration portion of its budget is up by more than 70% in that same time. NASA documents show many of these upcoming exploration projects will be controlled from JSC.
NASA’s budget
Projected
With new businesses moving in, missions incoming and developments locking in by the month, Houston aerospace industry o cials expect the city to be home to some of the most cutting-edge projects in the world and a hub of space exploration. At NASA, along with a slate of new missions taking place, the Johnson Space Center is planning a new development called Exploration Park, which will be home to research and testing for future space travel. There is no set timeline on when it could be built out, but in February, NASA locked in two partnership agreements for the site. Meanwhile, o cials expect the Houston Spaceport to be home to many new projects in the coming years, Szczesniak said. Spaceport o cials not only expect to add more businesses in the coming years—in a pursuit to make the spot a destination—but companies located there have plans to launch more of their creations into space. Meanwhile, companies like Aegis Aerospace, a woman-owned business founded in 2021, are adding to the commercial space sector. “[JSC] and the commercial work that goes into these space endeavors is a major driving force for the economy in the area,” said Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership.
$30B
$29.43B
$25B
$20B
$25.38B
$15B
Remainder of budget
$8.63B
$10B
$7.47B
$5B
Exploration budget
0
Fiscal year:
SOURCE: NASA COMMUNITY IMPACT NOTE: DATA IS BASED ON REQUESTS, ENACTED BUDGETS AND OPERATING PLANS
“For more than 60 years, JSC has cemented its position as a hub for human space exploration,” JSC Director Vanessa Wyche said at a Feb. 15 con- ference. “The future of Texas’s legacy in aerospace is bright.”
500+ BUSINESSES
in the aviation and aerospace industry in Greater Houston area
1,500+ JOBS
Diving in deeper
when Intuitive Machines, Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace are fully built out at Houston Spaceport
The JSC is set to host a new $200 million space institute being built by Texas A&M, which will host the country’s rst—and the world’s largest—simu- lated lunar and Mars surfaces, Texas A&M Chan- cellor John Sharp said at a Feb. 15 conference. Once built, it will be the rst development on the 240-acre Exploration Park, Wyche said. That new area will host several entities that will research and test to prepare for future space travel. To help build out that area, NASA o cials signed a second agreement for the site on Feb. 29 with American Center for Manufacturing & Innovation, or ACMI. ACMI is calling the development the Space Systems Campus, according to a Feb. 29 release from NASA. It will be an “applied research facility” that partners di erent government, academia and
240 ACRES to be developed at Exploration Park
Exploration Park
SOURCES: GREATER HOUSTON PARTNERSHIP, NASA COMMUNITY IMPACT
CLEAR LAKE
N
commercial entities. They will look to help meet defense and aerospace needs for the area as well as facilitate manufacturing of space hardware.
After landing on the moon Feb. 22, o cials are calling Intuitive Machines’ payload launch a success.
COURTESY NASA
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