Down to Earth: NASA gave Houston’s economy liftoff - Houston Chronicle

MISSION MOON: Nearly 50 years have passed since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. Our special Apollo 50 anniversary coverage explores how the country came together to fulfill President John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the lunar surface by 1970, NASA's bold missions - and crippling tragedies - since that historic day, and the future of space exploration and Houston as America's "Space City.”

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When NASA announced in 1961 that Houston was chosen as the command post for the nation’s space program, the Chamber of Commerce called it “the most significant single event” in the city’s economic history.

NASA’s economic impact

$50 million

Within five years of its opening in 1962, NASA employed nearly 5,000 people with a payroll of $50 million.

5,000

Approximate number of rocket scientists who moved to the Houston area to work for NASA

10,600

NASA and the Johnson space center currently employ around 10,600 people in Texas, nearly all in in Houston.

2,900

About 2,900 of those are federal employees. The other 7,700 are contractors.

Source: Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership

Over the next eight years, as the United States raced to the moon, Clear Lake would be transformed from farmland dotted by cattle and oil rigs to a bustling, high-tech community anchored by one of the most advanced centers of research in the world. Fifty years after the first men walked on the lunar surface, economists still agree with the chamber’s assessment.

NASA and the Johnson Space Center created more jobs, enticed more talent, spurred more housing, and brought more businesses to the Houston region than any other single initiative, experts said. And with the Johnson Space Center’s $4.6 billion budget last year, it’s hard to argue otherwise. Well over $2 billion of that was spent to pay contractors and employee salaries.

“People spend that money,” said Bob Mitchell, the president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. “People pay taxes, people buy nice homes, which benefit the school districts. It’s a domino effect.”

THE NEW FRONTIER: NASA is ever-present in Houston area for more than 50 years

NASA and the Johnson space center employ about 10,600 people in Texas, nearly all in Houston, according to the economic partnership. About 2,900 are federal employees and 7,700 are contractors.

NASA spreads its funding across the Houston economy through contracts primarily in the aerospace, biomedical and petrochemical sectors, but also energy, maritime and agriculture sectors. Businesses from other industries have commercialized technology developed at the Johnson Space Center and used the center’s facilities for their own research and training. Some offshore oil workers, for example, use a JSC lab to learn survival and safety skills.

“NASA and the Johnson Space Center is still the heart and soul of the region,” Mitchell said.

“Put Houston in orbit”

NASA’s decision to move to Houston was met with great anticipation. The Houston Magazine in 1962 predicted the decision would start an economic boom comparable to that of the opening of the ship channel in 1915, according to research by Stephen B. Oats, a historian. The Dallas Morning News wrote at the time that NASA “put Houston in orbit.” They were right.

“It transformed the entire Houston region,” Mitchell said. “It put Houston on the map.”

Within five years of opening, NASA employed nearly 5,000 people with a payroll of $50 million, according to “Houston: A History” by David McComb, a Texas historian. New homes followed the space center, and retail stores followed the new homes. Real estate in Nassau Bay, where many NASA personnel still live, became valuable overnight.

SPACE CITY: NASA is ever-present in Houston for more than 50 years

Patrick Jankowski, an economist at the Greater Houston Partnership, a business-financed economic development group, said the Johnson Space Center altered Houston’s economy from blue collar to white collar.

“Getting the Johnson Space Center back then was like a city getting Amazon today,” Jankowski said. “It was the founding moment of technology in Houston. We dropped 5,000 rocket scientists into the economy overnight. It was a huge shift.”

The most brilliant minds in the nation live in Houston

When the space center was announced, educators and university scientists predicted it would bring the most brilliant minds in the nation to Houston. But those minds had to be persuaded.

NASA’s scientists and technicians needed for the manned spacecraft center were living in Hampton, Virginia, near NASA’s Langley Research Center. Mostly civilians, they couldn’t be ordered to Houston.

So, the Houston Chamber of Commerce sent representatives with 200 pounds of Houston propaganda, said Howard Martin of the Houston Chamber of Commerce in a 1963 interview for the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. All but 84 employees were won over.

“It cast Houston in a totally different light,” said Jankowski. “It brought the attention of the world to the region to focus on something other than a hurricane.”

Houston and space grow up

Over the past half century, the economic influence of NASA has diminished as private companies take a larger role in the space exploration and the Houston economy has grown much larger and diversified in sectors such as trade and logistics, health care and life sciences. NASA, however, remains important to both the aerospace industry and the region’s economy.

“The metro area has gotten so much larger it doesn’t have the same impact it had (in the 1960s),” Jankowski said. “But there would be a big hole in Houston’s soul if the Johnson Space Center wasn’t here.”

erin.douglas@chron.com

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