NASA Chose Clear Lake While Hurricane Debris Was Still on the Ground

When NASA chose the Clear Lake site in September 1961, the land was still coastal prairie and cattle country. Hurricane Carla had crossed the area only days earlier. The first NASA team saw storm debris, stranded boats, a barn, and a windmill where a space center would soon rise.

The site had to check many boxes. NASA wanted barge access, mild weather, jet service, a nearby military airfield and university, and at least 1,000 acres at a fair price. Rice University made 1,000 acres on Clear Lake available. The government later bought about 600 more acres for highway frontage. Work began in April 1962.

The Manned Spacecraft Center opened in 1964. In June 1965, its new Mission Control took charge of Gemini IV. That four-day flight included the first American spacewalk. From then on, Houston flight controllers watched missions in real time through the Moon landings, the Space Shuttle, and today's space station and commercial crew flights.

The center took Lyndon B. Johnson's name in 1973. It remains home to Mission Control, astronaut training, and other work that keeps people safe in space. Visitors enter through Space Center Houston, the nonprofit official visitor center next door. The museum welcomes the public, while Johnson Space Center remains a working federal site.