I wonder why Americans moved mission control from Florida to Houston after Mercury programme

[Pawelk198604]

 know that the first mission control center at Cape Canaveral was, but was later moved to Houston, I wonder why NASA has done so, is not it better to have everything in one place?

[Frybert]

Mercury control was actually used for the first few Gemini launches as well. The main reason for the move was that Mercury and the first few Gemini flights were very short duration. They could easily be completed by a single shift of controllers. After that the flights got much more complex and required many more people so a larger facility was needed.  The Cape still had all the facilities needed for providing support for a launch so they retained control of that, but switched control to the larger facility at Houston shortly after lift off.

[Ten Key]

Cape Canaveral was (and still is) an Air Force base, so some of the reason might have been tied up in the "military vs civilian" dynamic. And Texas was Lyndon Johnson's home state, so putting the crown jewel of the program in Houston was a way of ensuring political support. But mostly, it was because Cape Canaveral is in the middle of nowhere. It's not as bad now as it was in the 1960's, but when NASA was running missions out of the Cape a lot of the controllers lived in Virginia. They had to leave their families for long stretches because there just wasn't a lot of civilization on Florida's Space Coast at the time. Moving the control center to Houston gave the controllers, and their families, a place to live.

[Gojira1000]

The cynic in me also thinks CC was in easy range of Cuba post missile crisis, and was a military target as an AFB, so Houston may have felt "safer"

Edited January 5, 2016 by Gojira1000

[mikegarrison]

A lot of it was politics. LBJ wanted to give jobs and money to Texas.

It's the same reason why so many government programs have suppliers in as many different states as possible, so that they will be able to get Congressional support.

Edited January 5, 2016 by mikegarrison

[GoSlash27]

1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

A lot of it was politics. LBJ wanted to give jobs and money to Texas.

It's the same reason why so many government programs have suppliers in as many different states as possible, so that they will be able to get Congressional support.

Exactly this.

Best,

-Slashy

[Workable Goblin]

Nope. LBJ was unimportant when the decision was made to move to Houston (in 1961, before Kennedy was shot; Kennedy and LBJ didn't get along at all well, and his influence was low at the time). There was some thought given to political considerations involving Albert Thomas, who was a Congressman from the Houston area who also happened to be chairman of the subcommittee responsible for NASA's budget, but the leading contender for the human spaceflight center (and therefore Mission Control) just before the actual decision was made was MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, with Houston coming in number two and a location in the San Francisco Bay area number three. However, moving to MacDill was predicated on the Strategic Air Command moving out of the base, and when they decided not to at the last minute, Houston became the number one contender and was subsequently chosen. Mission Control was moved once the facilities were ready, which took several more years.

Sorry, it's really a pretty boring story. If you want more detail, you can read Suddenly, Tomorrow Came (warning, PDF), the official NASA history of Johnson, specifically chapter 3.

[Kerbal01]

Lots of politics, like everything in the US these days. I wish we would actually get the support from govt to do meaningful space things.

[RainDreamer]

Imagine that they never moved to Houston. "Florida, we have a problem" 

[PB666]

On 1/5/2016 at 0:22 PM, Ten Key said:

Cape Canaveral was (and still is) an Air Force base, so some of the reason might have been tied up in the "military vs civilian" dynamic. And Texas was Lyndon Johnson's home state, so putting the crown jewel of the program in Houston was a way of ensuring political support. But mostly, it was because Cape Canaveral is in the middle of nowhere. It's not as bad now as it was in the 1960's, but when NASA was running missions out of the Cape a lot of the controllers lived in Virginia. They had to leave their families for long stretches because there just wasn't a lot of civilization on Florida's Space Coast at the time. Moving the control center to Houston gave the controllers, and their families, a place to live.

Johnson was from the hill country (the place people go to retire), the space center overlooks clear lake, a side bay on galveston bay, very coastal and east Texas. There are good reasons for this choice, Houston is located near a ship channel and a new one was recently built near bayport. The chemical industry is very strong between Texas city and Baytown. You have in Houston: Rice university, University of Houston, couple of other private universities, Texas Medical Center, UTMB in galveston, Texas A&M moody campus down in Galveston ....so there are lots of local nearby universities to collaborate with. Housing was relatively cheap in the area, though many of the houses built around NASA at that time have foundation problems and are basically worthless now. There is still space to expand housing around NASA. Recreational activities are water sports and fishing on Galveston bay, the Island(cough). 8 hours travel time to New Orleans, 4 hours to San Antonio, 3.5 to Austin, 5 hours to Corpus, 7 hours to Mexico, South Padre Island . . Right next to NASA is the Kemah boardwalk. There is also Ellington field, about 7 miles away hobby airport, and another 30 miles to IAH.