About the Mission

Houston-area business leaders and other Texas partners are working hard to ensure the NASA Johnson Space Center and its official visitor center, Space Center Houston, become a permanent home for one of three retiring space shuttles.

Why Houston?

As the nation’s fourth largest city, Houston supported the pursuit of space exploration since its inception. It is home to the NASA Johnson Space Center, Mission Control and the Astronaut Corps. The Space Shuttle Program is integral to the character and identity of the Lone Star State. Since the early 1970s, tens of thousands of local space professionals – civil servants and industry contractors – have played a central role in designing, developing, managing and operating every aspect of the program.

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An out-of-this-world exhibit

Ranked as one of Texas’ top tourist attractions with more than 750,000 visitors each year, Space Center Houston serves as the public window on the world’s most exciting scientific initiative … the American space program. As the gateway to the NASA Johnson Space Center, the 184,300-square-foot facility tells the story of human space flight through unparalleled exhibits, attractions, special presentations and hands-on activities. It is home to numerous pieces of historic space hardware from flown Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules, the Skylab trainer, astronaut flight suits and more.

A retired space shuttle would be a tremendous addition to the facility; the modern-day equivalent of housing Columbus’ famed ships - the Nina, the Pinta or the Santa Maria.

Space Center Houston has dynamic plans on how to showcase one of the space shuttles. The new 53,000-square-foot space shuttle exhibit at Space Center Houston will be an interactive, educational experience that encourages student interest and commitment to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The exhibit will focus on the human side of shuttle operations, including astronaut activities and what they accomplished on the shuttle.

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A lasting economic impact

The shuttle attraction at Space Center Houston has the potential to annually increase the regional economy by $45 million, plus generate another $29 million in business value and create more than 750 jobs in the area.

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Leading the charge

Numerous people and entities are working hard to secure Houston as one of the permanent homes for the space shuttle – Space Center Houston, NASA Johnson Space Center, Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, business and civic leaders, the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership and its 270 members, engineers, scientists and astronauts, and our elected officials, including Texas members of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and our Texas State Legislature.

To lead the charge, Space Center Houston’s Board of Directors formed a space tourism subcommittee comprised of elite Houston-area business leaders. This distinguished group will handle relocation requirements, manage a capital campaign and oversee the project should the Center be a selected Shuttle site. Subcommittee members include:

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