Podcast: Space Coast: NASA's Galveston Island Connection

Calling all space enthusiasts!

Just about 30 miles north of Galveston Island sits one of the region's and the world's most critical scientific communities. The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, a mere "one small step away" from the island, has been making "giant leaps for mankind" for more than six decades. If you know where to look, you might even spot astronauts walking among us. That's right, right here on Galveston Island.

In the mid-1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a Cold War space race. Each country, in an effort to demonstrate technological and scientific prowess, poured resources into aerospace research and programs here in the us. That effort led to the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly referred to as NASA, created by the National Aeronautics and Space Act in 1958 as the Federal civilian Agency for space exploration and research.

When John F. Kennedy became president in 1961, he pushed hard to accelerate human space flight, urging the nation to land a person on the moon and return them safely. That drive reshaped NASA's priorities and required a dedicated home for astronaut training and mission control. In September 1962, President Kennedy visited the Houston area and delivered his famous Rice University speech. "We choose to go to the moon", and I'm paraphrasing a bit here, but he continues 'not because it is easy, but because it is hard.’ This rallying cry helped focus political and public support for the NASA mission Apollo.

NASA needed a site for its new human space flight center that met efficient criteria, a mild climate, year-round water access for barges, good air service, a nearby university, and at least a thousand acres of land at a reasonable cost. After a national search, Washington publicly announced on September 19th, 1961, that Houston would be the location for the new manned Space Flight Center. The choice was shaped by both the region's logistical capabilities and strong political support from Texas leaders. But the first site visit took place just days after Hurricane Carla, which struck the Texas coast, mainly Galveston, on September 11th, 1961. A stark reminder of the Gulf Coast's vulnerability during storms. At the time, land around Galveston Bay was largely rural, used for cattle in small fishing communities, but that quickly changed. The center was formally opened in 1964.

Today, it's named the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, renamed by Congress in 1973 in honor of President Johnson. Covering roughly 1600 acres and more than a hundred buildings, just 30 miles north of Galveston Island, the Johnson Space Center has been the heart of American human space flight. On July 20th, 1969, Apollo eleven's lunar module Eagle landed on the moon, and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left humankind's first footprints on the lunar surface.

Over the years, the Johnson Space Center has grown into one of NASA's flagship human space flight hubs. It partners constantly with universities, industry, environmental groups, and local governments across the Greater Houston Galveston Bay region. Space Center Houston, the official visitor center and museum adjacent to the Johnson Space Center campus, welcomes large audiences every year, over a million, in fact.

Galveston itself has benefited from the close ties to the space community, the island and nearby campuses, host lectures, events, and visiting scientists and astronauts, and some have even made the island their home or at least a place of work. For example, after a long career at NASA, retired astronaut Colonel Mike Fossum joined Texas A&M University at Galveston in 2017 as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and later served as superintendent of the Texas A&M Maritime Academy. Colonel Fossum flew on three shuttle missions, logging more than 194 days in space.

Another pioneering astronaut with Galveston ties is Christina H. Koch, who launched to the International Space Station on March 14th, 2019, and stayed on board for 328 days. The longest single space flight by a woman, along with astronaut Jessica Meir, completed NASA's first all-women's spacewalk on October 18th, 2019. While Koch was in orbit, she famously tweeted photos of Galveston from space and stated, "dreaming of surf checks by bike from 61st street to flagship." The images she posted connected Ivan Life with the wider cosmos. Christina Koch is currently a member of NASA's Artemis II crew, the planned lunar orbit test flight that aims to fly around the moon with a four-person crew. The mission is currently scheduled to launch in April of 2026. Christina Koch is determined to take her love for Galveston Island to the moon.

The island has long been a place where science, exploration, and resilience intersect. Galveston and some of its institutions have been the proving ground for some of the Gulf's most advanced research and even space flight testing.

What do seaweed and space have in common? Well the crossover is right here on Galveston Island, the Sargassum Early Advisory System, also known as SEAS, is a project led by scientists at Texas A&M University at Galveston, in partnership with NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory using satellite imagery from NASA and the United States Geological Survey combined with ocean current and weather data, the sargassum Early advisory system forecast where floating mats of Sargassum will drift and when they will land on the beaches of Texas.

It was first unveiled in 2015 at the Gulf Coast Sargassum Symposium in Galveston. This partnership was a resounding success in accurately predicting where Sargassum would land on the beaches. The program has an over 90% success rate in forecasting sargassum landings on the beach. Since it was designed as an application, it's used by beach managers, fishermen, and tourism officials to plan cleanups, protect public health, and minimize impacts on the coastal economy.

Just offshore from Galveston Island, the Orion Spacecraft program has also turned to the Gulf for critical testing. In July of 2017, NASA conducted crew egress tests off the coast of Galveston, where astronauts in survival suits practice exiting the capsule in open water, while supported by the United States Coast Guard.

The following year, December 2018, engineers conducted crew module uprighting system tests to verify whether the Orion capsule could write itself after splashdown, even if some of its inflatable bags failed. Vessels and divers from Texas A&M Galveston supported these trials. Together, projects like SEAS and Orion highlight Galveston and NASA's unique role as both a hub for marine science and a staging ground for human space exploration.

The same waters that once carried tall ships and immigrants now support research that stretches from the Gulf all the way to the moon and beyond.