On November 15, several Bay Area and state officials attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited Texas A&M Space Laboratory, the centerpiece of NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s new Exploration Park.
What you need to know
The milestone is the kickoff event for a 22-month project to build a $200 million space research institute, which in many ways is a first in the United States, Community Impact previously reported. Ta.
The project is the first of several at Johnson Space Center’s new Exploration Park, which will occupy more than 200 acres outside the facility’s fences, officials said.
Several space-related missions are planned in the coming years, and officials hope the park will help solve some problems before sending humans into space. Some of the things the park does are:
Experiments and tests related to space exploration, including robotics, aeronautics, simulation, and habitats that will help build a pipeline of specialized skills that will strengthen the economy Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp at the ceremony called it a “A place where people can run freely.”
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Texas A&M will be the first tenant among private, public and academic partners expected to move into the park over the next few years, officials said.
The new space laboratory will house the world’s largest climate-controlled lunar and Martian surfaces, Community Impact previously reported. The institute will be the first of its kind in the United States.
In a pre-groundbreaking program, Vanessa Wich, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, emphasized the park’s important role in future space projects.
He also highlighted the public-private partnerships expected to be part of the project.
“This time when we go to the moon, our goal is to do it differently,” Wich said. “We will work collaboratively with governments and academia, as well as international and commercial partners.”
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Texas A&M’s Board of Trustees approved $500 million in construction costs for a number of projects in early November, including $200 million for the Space Institute, according to a Nov. 7 news release from the university. Approved.
This was one of several steps NASA and Texas A&M took this year regarding the Space Institute and space projects in general. The two signed a lease in February, which officials at the time thought would be the first domino to fall with the construction of Exploration Park.
In the weeks that followed, Johnson Space Center also began signing other development agreements with companies and public entities, such as the American Center for Manufacturing Innovation (ACMI), to occupy space within the park.
The project itself stems from Texas House Bill 3447, which was passed in 2023 and was authored by state Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood. The bill allocates $350 million for space-related development in Texas. This total includes $200 million for Exploration Park.
As part of that effort, Texas also formally established the Texas Space Commission earlier this year, tasked with helping direct future projects related to the space economy, among other things.
stay tuned
Construction of the project is expected to take 22 months, said Robert Ambrose, deputy director of the Texas A&M Space Institute.
But the institute is just the beginning of a series of space-based missions planned in the coming years.
On that list, NASA is considering sending astronauts into low-Earth orbit, lunar orbit, and eventually landing them on the moon again, Witch said.
