I never wondered about this until lately.
2006-07-02 05:18:26 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Lyndon B. Johnson, Senator and then Vice President of the United States under Kennedy. Later elected as President in 1964 after serving the remainder of Kennedy's term.
It was 100% politics and Johnson won!
2006-07-02 07:24:45 · answer #1 · answered by cat_lover 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Houston was selected as the NASA site because of the climate. Weather is generally always good there and it was supposed to have been the site of the launching pads as well. That was until the Cape in Florida was discovered. It has to do with launch window(ie the formations or lack thereof of cloud cover and atmosphere). To get a vehicle into space there must be a clear launch window and Huston and FLorida have the best in the United States.
2006-07-02 05:51:04 · answer #2 · answered by mikeae 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mission Control was put in Houston because LBJ pushed for it. It has nothing to do with where you launch rockets from, since they are launched from Florida or California, not Texas. As far as tracking, there are centers all over the planet that feed their information to Houston. Spacecraft in orbit move so quickly that they're only in view of a single ground station for maybe an hour, so again, the location of MC had nothing to do with where they could track spaceships from.
2006-07-02 05:44:33 · answer #3 · answered by Flyboy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but NASA has locations across the nation and world including Cape Canaveral, Florida and Greenbelt, Maryland and Edwards AFB, California. So one requirement was to provide spacecraft tracking centers around the globe. Houston seems to be a good southern central US location to view passing spacecraft from.
2006-07-02 05:32:15 · answer #4 · answered by bobweb 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Texas was probably chosen for patronage, as in the first answer. But there were physical reasons it should be in one of the southern states. The rocket gets more of a boost from Earth's spin. They were also worried about failed rockets crashing into cities, so they wanted it located so the rocket would crash into the Gulf of Mexico, or the Atlantic Ocean.
That pretty much narrowed it down to Texas or Florida.
2006-07-02 05:37:09 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, I agree with Mr. R. For a more comprehensive story, check out Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff."
2006-07-02 05:24:26 · answer #6 · answered by knight2001us 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because of one very powerful politician whose support tipped the balance in Congress to fund the space program. His name is Lyndon B. Johnson!!!! Yes, it's true. (for those of you who are unaware, LBJ was from Texas) It was a straight up deal folks.
2006-07-02 05:22:08 · answer #7 · answered by Michael R 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My guess is that it had to do with Lyndon Johnson's political power at that time. It had to be built somewhere. To the victor belongs the spoils.
2006-07-02 05:25:06 · answer #8 · answered by Ace Librarian 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Michael R hit the target dead center. It was LBJ, and nothing else, that swung things toward Texas.
2006-07-02 05:27:34 · answer #9 · answered by gimpalomg 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Probably because it's in a remote area where, if an accident happens, no urban areas will be affected.
Plus, it sounds nice. Say it out loud : "Huston! Huston!" or "Huston, we hava e problem!" etc. etc.
2006-07-02 05:22:17 · answer #10 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋