From the archives: Houston Gets $60 Million Space Lab for Research on Moon Shot Annual Payroll of $17 Million; 800 Families

(1963) aerial of NASA Manned Space Center. Sam C. Pierson Jr./ Houston Chronicle (1963) aerial of NASA Manned Space Center. Sam C. Pierson Jr./ Houston Chronicle Photo: Sam C. Pierson Jr., HC Staff Photo: Sam C. Pierson Jr., HC Staff Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close From the archives: Houston Gets $60 Million Space Lab for Research on Moon Shot 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

This story appeared in the Houston Chronicle on Sept. 19, 1961. The headlines and words are reprinted as they ran then.

Houston was named Tuesday as the site for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's moon shot research and development laboratory.

This will make Houston the command post for the nation's first attempt to put a man on the moon and beyond. The laboratory's initial cost will be $60 million.

Rep. Albert Thomas of Houston announced this city's selection. His announcement was made in the office of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who has steadily supported efforts to locate the space laboratory in Houston.

On 1000-Acre Tract

The spacious, self-contained research city, will be built on a 1000-acre tract five miles east of the Gulf Freeway and on the Seabrook Loop Rd. (Farm-to-Market Rd. 528) between Webster and Seabrook.

Construction is scheduled to begin late this year or early in 1962, Thomas said. Private industry will do the building. It will mean thousands of construction jobs here.

The space lab will bring 800 families to Houston from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, within a few weeks. These families already are affiliated with preliminary work at Langley.

It will pump the $60 million construction cost into the economy of Houston and Harris County.

Payroll $17 Million

The annual payroll, when the center is permanently staffed, will total at least $17 million.

The laboratory project, to contain four multistory buildings, has been designated as the center to develop the Apollo, a spaceship in which the NASA hopes to put three Americans on the moon before 1970.

Picked over 20 others

Houston was selected for the laboratory after NASA representatives surveyed 20 other proposed sites throughout the nation, Thomas said.

He said the laboratory will include a huge domed building capable of containing a space capsule one third as tall as the Washington Monument.

Now off Ground

"We are deeply indebted to President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson for the long hours and many headaches involved in reaching this decision," Thomas said.

"But the space program is now off the ground, and the taxpayers will get many returns for the dollars spent for the installation. The center will employ thousands of researchers, and there is no way to estimate the number of other employees necessary to build and operate the laboratory."

The 1000-acre site, owned by Rice University, is one that Thomas noted "did not have a drop of water standing" after hurricane Carla tore through the Gulf Coast area.

The center has been termed a "think factory."

It will be the nerve center for the development and testing of all component parts of the Apollo - a moon rocket with a cabin measurement 15 by XX* feet wide and 45 feet long.*

Booster Here, Too

The moonship's booster known as Saturn and capable of delivering an ultimate 1.5 million pounds of thrust, also will be built here, Thomas said.

Both the cabin and booster, after being developed here, will be sent by barge to Cape Canaveral for actual launching.

"I want to express the deep appreciated of the people of Houston and Harris County, chairman of the board of trustees at Rice University, Thomas said.

Selection of the Houston site was the third major step in recent weeks to step up the nation's plans to put an American on the moon.

Several weeks ago, NASA announced that the big rocket base at Cape Canaveral had been selected as the launch site for rockets to be used in a manned mission before 1970.

On Sept. 7, the government announced selection of a New Orleans site for the $50 million job of building rockets in the man-to-the moon and other space projects.

UPDATE

In September 1963, the Manned Spacecraft Center opened and took over formal responsibility as mission control for human space flight. That would include the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs as well as the International Space Station and Orion.

Today, the complex - renamed as Johnson Space Center in 1973 - on 1,620 acres in the Clear Lake area serves as mission control, astronaut training center, leads NASA's International Space Station operations, among other projects, and is one of NASA's largest research and development facilities.

Though NASA consists of 20 facilities across the country, JSC remains the home of the nation's manned space program.

All told, the space center has diversified and injected more than $100 billion into the local economy, according to NASA.