NASA marks Sixty-five years of Johnson Space Center

NASA published the announcement on Monday 02 November 2026, marking Sixty-five years since NASA’s Johnson Space Center was established. The agency said the center supports America’s human spaceflight program and is home to the astronaut corps, the Mission Control Center, and teams working on NASA programs.

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed the nation to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. NASA said its Space Task Group was working on Project Mercury and needed a dedicated field center for human spaceflight.

NASA announced on Sept. 19, 1961, that the new Manned Spacecraft Center would be built near Houston, Texas. The agency established it on Nov. 1, 1961, and construction began in 1962. In 1973, it officially became NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

The Manned Spacecraft Center officially opened on Nov. 1, 1961. While construction continued at the Clear Lake site, employees worked in 13 leased buildings in southeast Houston. The first employees moved onto the new site in late 1963.

Johnson supports International Space Station operations and commercial partnerships and destinations in low Earth orbit. It houses the Moon Base Program and Orion Program, while the Human Health and Performance Directorate and Human Research Program work to protect crew health and performance.

Construction of Building 9 began in December 1965 and finished in March 1967. Apollo 11 astronauts used a mock lunar surface scene there. Astronauts for all 135 shuttle missions later used its mockups for training. The facility now houses training mockups of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and the Active Response Gravity Offload System.