The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 355
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NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center
reasons.1 One, to be sure, was the political pressure that Texans
holding key positions in the Federal government brought to bear.
Representative Albert Thomas of Houston, for example, was chair-
man of the House Appropriations Subcommittee which handled
NASA's funds-a position that allowed Thomas to become a
veritable one-man lobby for his home city. Vice-President Lyndon
B. Johnson, as chairman of the National Space Committee, also
had some influence on NASA's choice.'" But the truly deciding
factor was not political pressure; it was the winning combination
of advantages which Houston itself had to offer. Chief among
these was the fact that Houston's ship channel and port facilities,
which moved more tonnage than any seaport in the nation except
New York, provided an excellent means of transporting bulky
space vehicles to other NASA locations, especially to Cape Can-
averal. Other advantages, in their order of importance, were
Houston's mighty industrial complex whose manufacturies and
refineries, producing 38.06 per cent of the nation's oiltool ca-
pacity, 32 per cent of its petroleum, and about 75 per cent of its
petrochemicals, were capable of expanding-of adding depth and
dimension in electronics and aerospace fields-to support a space
center; the scientific and research facilities available at Rice
University, the University of Houston, and the Texas Medical
Center; Houston's vast repository of engineers and skilled crafts-
men and its 550,73o-man labor force; a temperate climate that
permitted year-around work; some i,ooo acres of land, donated
by Rice University, for the installation of the space center; the
Houston International Airport which provided first-class, all-
weather jet service to strategic places in the United States and
beyond; and finally the city's recreational and cultural assets such
as the Houston Symphony Society, the Houston Museum of Fine
Arts, and six professional and civic theatres." None of the other
"1NASA site selection teams also considered the following Texas cities: El Paso,
Dallas, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, Victoria, Liberty, and Harlingen. NASA ruled
them out because they lacked either port facilities or strong supporting industry.
James M. Grimwood, Historian, Manned Spacecraft Center, to S.B.O., Houston,
interview, July 22, 1963. See also Dallas Morning News, August 24, 1961.
12Houston Chronicle, September 24, 27, 1961; Houston Magazine (October,
19i6i), 68.
"James Stafford, "Behind the NASA Move to Houston," Texas Business Review,
XXXVI, 9o-94; "First Year: Space-Age Impact on Houston," Houston Magazine355
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/413/?q=%221777%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State Historical Association.