Space Exploration in Texas

Texas is well know for having NASA's Johnson Space Center but California seems to be leading in the space industry. Texas does have many opportunities for aerospace engineers interested in the atmospheric flight side of the career. Hopefully Texas will soon jump into the space industry since many private companies are gaining interests in opening sites in Texas.

Texas is a nice big state with a lot of land to offer for space exploration. Currently there are a couple of space companies interested in investing their sites in Texas. XCOR Aerospace from California found a nice location near Midland to establish a facility. SpaceX, also from California, is trying to negotiate a launchpad near Brownsville. Blue Origin from Washington is also trying to establish a launchpad in West Texas.

These private businesses may bring a lot of job opportunities in Texas. Texas needs to take advantage of the interest of these businesses in order to build up a space industry. Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, is considering Texas for a launchpad but there's a competition between Florida and Puerto Rico for the launchpad. These businesses would like to be as close to the equator as possible in order to make spaceflight quicker and cheaper.

According to the article, Private Space Industry Eyes State's Open Spaces, Gov. Perry has not tried to lure these companies with any incentives. It's time that these companies come to Texas and establish a good industry. These companies have been considering establishing facilities in Texas for over 20 year, they now have the appropriate technology to collaborate with NASA and being in Texas would establish a strong network with mission control. SpaceX has built the the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets in order to utilize their Dragon capsules, which has one for crew and another for cargo. They have already collaborated with NASA by sending a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station. If these businesses would like to come to Texas, the governor needs to negotiate with them in order to bring more jobs to Texas.

Luthra, Shefali. "Private Space Industry Eyes State's Open Spaces." Article. The Texas Tribune. Published August 10, 2012. Accessed August 10, 2012.