Development
BY JAMES T. NORMAN
Texas A&M Space Institute breaks ground outside Johnson Space Center
The details
With several space-related missions planned in the coming years, o cials hope the park can help solve several issues prior to sending humans to space. The park will assist with: • Bolstering the economy • Assisting in building professional pipelines • Experiments and tests related to space explora- tion, including in robotics, aeronautics, simula- tions and habitats Among the lunar and Mars scape, the facility will include garages for tenants to work out of, observation decks for each scape and an audito- rium on the third oor for presentations, according to site plan documents.
The project is the rst of several to come to Johnson Space Center’s new Exploration Park, which will take up more than 200 acres outside the fence of the facility, o cials said. Texas A&M University Chancellor John Sharp at the ceremony called it “a place where robots can run free.” NASA’s Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche emphasized at a program prior to the groundbreaking the importance of the role the park will play in future space projects. She also underscored the private and public partnerships that are anticipated as part of the project. “When we go to the moon this time, our intent is to do it di erently,” Wyche said. “We’re going to be doing it with international partners, commercial partners, as well as with the government and academia.”
Multiple Bay Area and state o cials were on hand Nov. 15 to break ground on the long- anticipated Texas A&M University Space Institute, which will be the centerpiece of the new Exploration Park at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The groundbreaking was the precursor to construction starting in January on the space institute, which, in several ways, will be the rst of its kind in the United States, Community Impact previously reported. Among a litany of private, public and academic partners set to move into the park in the coming years, Texas A&M through the institute will be the rst tenant, o cials said. Texas A&M’s new space institute will be four stories and house the world’s largest climate- controlled lunar scape and Mars scape, Community Impact previously reported.
$200 million cost for space institute 32 acres for space institute 200+ acres for Exploration Park 22 months to build
SOURCES: NASA'S JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, TEXAS A&M COMMUNITY IMPACT
Stay tuned
NASA has plans for a slate of space- based missions in the coming years, such as the Artemis missions. Those missions will include putting astronauts in orbit around the moon and landing humans near the lunar South Pole, Wyche said. June 2023 House Bill 3447 passes, providing $350M to space-related developments February 2024 NASA and Texas A&M sign lease for space institute March 2024 Texas Space Commission members announced November 2024 Space institute breaks ground 2025 Artemis II space mission planned 2026 Artemis III space mission planned Late 2026 Space institute opens
The $200 million Texas A&M Space Institute is expected to be built out in late 2026.
PHOTOS & RENDERINGS COURTESY TEXAS A&M
The Mars scape will simulate what it’s like to be on the surface of Mars in a climate-controlled setting.
Space Institute Director Nancy Currie-Gregg plants a Texas A&M ag on Nov. 15 at the construction site.
SOURCES: NASA'S JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, TEXAS A&M COMMUNITY IMPACT
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