Lone Star space: How Texas can revitalize its galactic industry

In 1970, the crew aboard Apollo 13 called back to Earth to report the catastrophic failure of its oxygen supply. Their famous phrase “Houston, we have a problem” and the subsequent solution piqued the national imagination, representing the indomitable resolve and ingenuity of America’s space program.

Since then, the public appetite for space has declined. Today, we have a piecemeal, inconsistent approach to space exploration, largely dominated by private efforts. While these companies are continuing to achieve breakthroughs, this dog-eat-dog approach is not helping the nation innovate fast enough.

The state of Texas has emerged as a de facto leader in this disjointed space, but to become the central hub for space exploration, it needs to do more than prop up private players. Through a holistic approach that bolsters both public and private endeavors, the United States can centralize Texas as the capital for human space flight.

There’s no better place for space exploration than the Lone Star State, which has a singular combination of science and engineering prowess and a yearning for exploration woven into its DNA.

As a baseline, the state’s existing space infrastructure is unequalled in its capabilities and history. Texas is, after all, where Aldrin and Armstrong first lifted off. The Johnson Space Center (JSC), aptly known as “mission control,” is the oldest and most capable home base for human spaceflight training, research and flight control in the world.

This public infrastructure is set to grow further, as Texas A&M just began construction on a monumental $200 million Space Institute adjacent to the JSC. The four-story supercenter will house over 100,000 square feet of climate-controlled lunar and Martian terrains for realistic field testing and training, adding yet another notch in Space City’s belt. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Starbase is just a few hours down the road; the de facto headquarters of the private space sector.

This public space infrastructure acts as the federally funded backbone around which private companies like SpaceX build. While Texas has been providing grants, tax incentives and zoning relief for SpaceX, it could better empower the JSC by bolstering STEM education pipelines that feed into it.

To enhance its galactic workforce, Texas can leverage its especially great science and engineering university system to directly supply a large, dynamic workforce. My colleague Robert Ambrose — NASA’s former division chief for Software, Robotics and Simulation — has an instrumental role in cultivating this talent at Texas A&M in his Robotics and Automation Design Lab. There, talented graduate students create robots, vehicles and equipment to navigate extraterrestrial environments.

I’ve met some of these next-gen space innovators and their enthusiasm is infectious, but it rarely reaches Texas’ space industry. For many brilliant students, the only access point is a roundabout career through the defense or aerospace ranks, which often means bouncing around all over the country. Texas can, and should, change this by duplicating high levels of space research and development across its university and economic systems, and by creating a clear access pathway into the space industry.

Perhaps most importantly, Texas is known for its business-friendly environment and strong entrepreneurial spirit. No other industry has the potential to maximize cold, hard ROI in Texas as much as the space industry. The space ecosystem is set to grow to more than $1.8 trillion by 2035. By conservative estimates, each dollar in incentives for research and development is poised to come directly back to Texas by a multiple of three to seven times through jobs, products, factories and inventions.

Incentivizing space development is not a bill for Texas; it’s an opportunity it must seize — and it’s well equipped to do so.