I randomly thought of this while watching Apollo 13 the other day. If the astronauts live in Florida and are trained in Florida and the shuttles are launched in Florida, then why is mission control in Texas? And I know something else is in Huntsville,Alabama...don't they built the shuttles there or something?
Why not all in one place?
2007-10-27 12:32:19 · 3 answers · asked by Heather 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Political decision-making. NASA was funded by the US taxpayer. Building space centres created jobs. Politically speaking, it was a wise move to spread NASA facilities around the various states so more people felt they were getting something back for their investment.
2007-10-27 13:46:39 · answer #1 · answered by Jason T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The "Johnson Space Center" in Houston is in Texas because , when he was congressman ad later VP, Lyndon Baynes Johnson waned it there --and was powerful enough to get that VERY lucrative installation located in Texas.
In short , good old American political dealing.
As for the rest--pretty much the same thing, except the political players ad winners are different, of course.
Kennedy Space Cener is about the only one that is where it is for rational reasons: a) it has very good weather most of the time; b) it is nearer the equator than most o f the US (there are technical reasons why you want to launch close to the equator) and c) you have a nice big ocean to the east for things to fall into when things go wrong (or, as in the case of the shuttle, you want to drop 55,000 lb steel casings from rocket boosers into the water.
2007-10-27 15:14:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Poor planning and they wouldn't admit it.
2007-10-27 16:44:40 · answer #3 · answered by Ultraviolet Oasis 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋