The Houston Airport System and the Orion Capsule

For 2306 students, and to a lesser extent 2305.

When you start on the section on local government in Texas - and on the parts that discuss cities - you'll see repeatedly stated that cities are different entities than nations, or states, or counties. Those are all defined governing districts that start out with strict borders and then get to the business of getting filled in with people and stuff like that.

Cities start out as groups of people, and if they become economically viable they get the ability to create borders and pass and implement laws, collect taxes and stuff like that. They are economic entities primarily.

- Click here for past blog posts on cities.
- Click here for past blog posts on Houston.

The health of a city ebbs and flows based on how well it makes decisions that enhance its economic viability. Houston - famously - has done pretty well on that front, It helps when the key industry in town is doing quite well. But city leaders have to stay ahead of the efforts of other cities to cut in to what works well for the town, and to re-position itself for the future.

With that in mind I stumbled on this story on the development of the Orion - NASA's latest space capsule. A variety of nearby clicks took me to efforts by the Houston Airport System to turn Ellington field into a commercial spaceport. This is next step in commercial aviation, and promises to continue to ensure that the city continues to have transportation options available to it. This is an endeavor actively sought by the city government. If it does not do so now, the city may lose the opportunity to dominate the industry - which would be a pity given NASA's prominence here:

“This is not a science fiction-type conversation where we have to imagine how this industry might operate if it did in fact exist,” Mario Diaz, HAS’s aviation director, told the crowd. “This industry exists today, these launches have already taken place.”

HAS started aggressively moving forward with its spaceport plans in July, when it secured approval from Houston City Council for a $718,000 contract for a consulting firm to study how Ellington Airport can obtain a spaceport launch site operator’s license. However, HAS has been looking into developing a spaceport in Houston since early 2011. The ideal Ellington spaceport would allow for space tourism, astronaut training and commercial space experiments, HAS said.

In addition to unveiling the spaceport renderings on Sept. 4, HAS hosted a panel of members of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The panel, which was comprised of former astronauts who are now working at companies that are in the process of creating commercial spaceflight vehicles, such as SpaceX and Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), spoke about their progress. Click here to read more about the panel.

Most of the panelists noted how their work is directly tied with Houston — all of them were trained as astronauts in Houston, and many work with the Johnson Space Center on developing their technologies used in spaceflight.

Houston's founding was based in large measure on its location. It lied on a potential transportation stream connecting the raw materials within Texas (first lumber, then cotton, then oil, etc...) with consumers around the world.

The development of the Port of Houston, then the airport system are all part of this process. These latest efforts fit within those previous ones. That it continues to do so illustrates the city's aggressiveness when it comes to business development.

While city's are primarily economic entities, not all play the game successfully.

The Space Shuttle Will Continue

For another year at least...

Speaking of Innovation

While we are speaking of design innovation, here's a new wrinkle on manufacturing. NASA has apparently played a key role in spurring 3D printing technology, among many other technologies. One of the roles the federal government has played over its history has been to pump funding into the development of technology that has yet to prove itself in the marketplace yet. Here's the latest example. Could 3D manufacturing make factories obsolete?

Culberson and NASA

John Culberson, who represents U.S. House District 7, has harsh words for NASA:

"We need revolutionary change, a complete restructuring," Culberson told the Houston Chronicle. "NASA needs complete freedom to hire and fire based on performance, it needs to be driven by the scientists and the engineers, and it needs to be free of politics as much as possible."

The fourth-term lawmaker said he was "kicking around" a proposal designed to make NASA more like the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency led by a director and a 24-member board appointed by the president.

Culberson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said that despite spending $156.5 billion over the past decade, NASA had surrendered "a 40-year advantage" in space exploration. He said the agency continues to rely on liquid-fueled rockets with technology dating back to "Robert Goddard-era rockets" in the 1920s.

"I have always been a zealous advocate for the space program," said Culberson, who dates his interest in the subject to a childhood telescope. "But the setbacks are inexcusable and maddening — all because the magnificent men and women scientists and engineers have been frustrated by the bureaucracy, waste and duplication at headquarters."

Nick Lampson, whose district contains NASA, came to its defense, as did a supporter who pointed back at Congress:

John M. Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, challenged Culberson's claim that the nation had little to show for NASA's efforts over the past 50 years, adding that NASA had fulfilled what the White House and Congress requested and financed for decades.

"It's easy to beat up on them because they're at the end of the shuttle program and they've been given inadequate funding by the administration and Congress to move forward with the new program for manned space flight," Logsdon said.

Culberson's comments apparently were inspired by previous statements by Newt Gingrich such as the following:

I am for a dramatic increase in our efforts to reach out into space, but I am for doing virtually all of it outside of NASA through prizes and tax incentives. NASA is an aging, unimaginative, bureaucracy committed to over-engineering and risk-avoidance which is actually diverting resources from the achievements we need and stifling the entrepreneurial and risk-taking spirit necessary to lead in space exploration.

My hunch is that both Culberson and Lampson are buttering up separate constituencies. Lampson's is the existing bureaucratic constituency across I-45 in Clear Lake (and a total of 20,000 related workers in the Houston area), Culberson's is a potential private sector constituency who could take advantage of funding that would be redirected to the private sector. Typical ideological politics, nothing new to see.

The Chron story concludes with a statement that attests to NASA's ability to broaden its appeal across Congress:

Culberson emphasized that his proposal to revamp NASA's structure had not been drafted into legislation and that he had not yet solicited co-sponsors.

But prospects for passage of such a measure would difficult, given wide bipartisan support in Congress for NASA and a jam-packed election year congressional calendar.