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Author
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Topic: Why Mission Control was located in Houston
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Jim_Voce
Member Posts: 273
From:
Registered: Jul 2016
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posted 03-18-2017 02:17 PM
   
Why was Houston chosen as the place to have NASA's Mission Control Center and not Cape Canaveral?NASA had been running its flight operations out of Cape Canaveral right up until the Gemini 4 mission. The Space Task Group needed a field center of their own and were moved out of Langley, Virginia and moved to Houston. That makes sense to me. But it does not make sense as to why Mission Control also had to get established in Houston. Keeping in mind that NASA developed a whole field center at Cape Canaveral, why couldn't Mission Control remain there as well? Obviously some heavy politics were involved with this decision and it is pretty obvious why the Manned Spacecraft Center got established in Lyndon Johnson's state. But was there any credible rationale for locating Mission Control in Houston as well? |
hlbjr
Member Posts: 481
From: Delray Beach Florida USA
Registered: Mar 2006
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posted 03-18-2017 05:14 PM
As you already alluded to in your post "Lyndon Johnson." |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 03-18-2017 06:02 PM
This is a complex question that probably requires more than can be written here to properly answer, but as a starting point, I would suggest reading, "Suddenly Tomorrow Came... A History of the Johnson Space Center" by Henry Dethloff. Here is a relevant excerpt (though not a complete answer): Were flight operations to be part of the design center, that is, MSC in Houston or part of the operations center at Kennedy Space Center where Mercury controls were housed? Goddard Space Flight Center had the attraction of being conveniently located near the National Capital and NASA Headquarters. When the Kennedy Space Flight Center was organized, G. Merritt Preston and some of his preflight operations personnel became a part of the new center and strengthened the idea that the control center should remain with the launch operations crews in Florida. Travel also was a factor. Would travel requirements be greater or less if the control center were located in Maryland, Texas or Florida? Could communications be enhanced by locating at the launch area? By the latter stages of Mercury, some of the remote flight control stations, as at Bermuda, were being shut down. It had become more and more apparent that through networking a control center could be effectively established at any number of points in the network. But both John Hodge and Chris Kraft initially suggested that the Florida location might be most reasonable. Further discussions with Walter Williams, Bob Gilruth, and the Gemini and Apollo Program Offices, among others, resulted in the decision to locate in Houston. It was, all agreed, a happy and fortuitous decision which strengthened the relationship between the engineering design and flight operations programs. Mission control and operations soon became a major component of MSC responsibilities. |
mikej
Member Posts: 481
From: Germantown, WI USA
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 03-18-2017 06:17 PM
Appendix A of "Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft" contains a non-political "Site Selection Procedure." A similar narrative (with a few different details) is on the Johnson Space Center page of NASA's Cultural Resource website. |
Jim_Voce
Member Posts: 273
From:
Registered: Jul 2016
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posted 03-18-2017 08:07 PM
Thanks to Robert and to Mike for the great reads on this. |
Go4Launch
Member Posts: 549
From: Seminole, Fla.
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 03-20-2017 11:50 AM
I would also mention that Rep. Albert Thomas, a congressman from Houston for almost 30 years, was extremely influential in this decision. He was a Rice graduate and was even involved in the Humble Oil land donation. And it didn't hurt matters that the speaker of the House at the time was Rep. Sam Rayburn of Texas. |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1488
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 03-20-2017 12:51 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Jim_Voce:
But was there any credible rationale for locating Mission Control in Houston as well?
There really isn't any benefit to having mission control at the launch site. No other spacecraft programs, scientific, commercial or military have their main control centers at the launch sites. Major spacecraft have some form of control center at the factory, comsat operators have it at their HQ, military at certain nodes, NASA scientific at design centers, etc. Having control near the design center is the greatest reason. quote:
Keeping in mind that NASA developed a whole field center at Cape Canaveral, why couldn't Mission Control remain there as well?
Actually, JSC (MSC) in November 1961 was formed before KSC (LOC) July 1962. And there wasn't a "whole field center" at the Cape. NASA was just using Air Force facilities and it was tenant at the Cape. The early NASA residents were the Space Task Group and Marshall Space Flight Center's Launch Operations Directorate (LOD). | |
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