{"id":895,"date":"2020-02-07T22:42:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T22:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2020.houston.wordcamp.org\/?p=895"},"modified":"2020-03-04T19:35:13","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T19:35:13","slug":"why-is-houston-called-space-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/why-is-houston-called-space-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Houston Called Space City?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post’s featured image caption: Space Shuttle at Johnson Space Center, Photo courtesy of Space Center Houston<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHouston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHouston, we have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Famous words uttered from outer space with one thing in common. Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it\u2019s clear why Houston carries the nickname of \u201cSpace City.\u201d Or maybe not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 12, 1962, then-president John F. Kennedy delivered his monumental speech announcing the country\u2019s plan to send a man to the moon. The speech took place at Houston\u2019s Rice University and gave NASA\u2019s Apollo program a clear mission, and a need to expand!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not far from the stadium where Kennedy stood, the Humble Oil and Gas company donated approximately 1,000 acres of land to the University. This land would soon be the new home of NASA\u2019s Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Mission Control Center, photograph by Heather B.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While space vehicles are launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, all manned spaceflight for the United States are coordinated and monitored from the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center in Houston. Which is why most communication from astronauts begin with the word \u201cHouston\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Neutral Buoyancy Lab, photograph by Heather B.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Houston is also home to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL). The NBL is a 6.2 million gallon swimming pool (essentially) filled with mock-ups of the International Space Station (ISS) and other space vehicles. This is the place where astronauts from around the world come to practice for upcoming spacewalks. This is the closest way to experience the weightlessness they\u2019ll be working in while at the ISS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve ever wondered where the astronauts go after they land back on earth, the answer is\u2026 you guessed it, Houston. They\u2019ll spend some time reacclimating to the effects of gravity from special housing on the JSC campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While you\u2019re here for WordCamp Houston, you\u2019ll inevitably pass by one of the many gates to Johnson Space Center. Above each gate flies six flags representing the nations of the current astronauts aboard the International Space Station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t go in those gates, but you can visit Space Center Houston next door for all things NASA. Rocket park houses a full-size Saturn V rocket, there are tram tours of special buildings on the JSC property (including mission control), and you can explore inside a Space Shuttle replica. Coming soon, one of the first reusable rockets, a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster will be on exhibit as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houston has fully embraced it\u2019s Space City moniker. After all, we are also home to the Astros major league baseball team, Rockets professional basketball team and an astronaut themed McDonald’s (look for it on your left as you\u2019re driving in).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image
WordCamp Houston’s very own Wapuunaut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All kidding aside, Houston is very proud of our space-related heritage, and it\u2019s one reason why you\u2019ll see lots of space-related elements at WordCamp \u2014 from our website to our Wapuunaut to our venue and session space. We hope you enjoy the view!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To infinity and beyond!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you haven\u2019t already, subscribe to our updates<\/a> so you never miss the latest information about WCHOU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Show us that you\u2019re as excited for WordCamp Houston as we are by using the hashtag #WCHOU<\/strong> in your WordCamp Houston posts. Be sure to find us on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post’s featured image caption: Space Shuttle at Johnson Space Center, Photo courtesy of Space Center Houston \u201cHouston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.\u201d \u201cHouston, we have a problem.\u201d Famous words uttered from outer space with one thing in common. Houston. Maybe it\u2019s clear why Houston carries the nickname of \u201cSpace City.\u201d Or maybe … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Why is Houston Called Space City?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15130613,"featured_media":950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1297609],"tags":[1297638,1297637,1297639,1297611,1297610],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-about-hou","tag-johnson-space-center","tag-nasa","tag-space-center-houston","tag-space-city","tag-space-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/files\/2020\/02\/Space_City_-_Shuttle.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15130613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":958,"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houston.wordcamp.org\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}