Houston's space swagger just got some fresh fuel. The New York Times reports that Wednesday's launch of NASA's Artemis II mission—the 10-day flight that will send four astronauts around the moon—has put Houston's Johnson Space Center back in the spotlight and reminded residents why their city calls itself "Space City." Control of the mission shifted from Florida's Kennedy Space Center to Houston after liftoff, and more than 1,000 people packed Space Center Houston to watch, waving flags and counting down together. For locals who grew up in the Apollo era, it felt like a return to form; one attendee recalled that in the 1960s, a moon mission felt like "someone we knew was up there."
Count Sen. Ted Cruz among those crowing about Space City: "Houston is a city that was built on space," he said after the launch. "It is not an accident that one of the very first words uttered on the lunar surface was Houston: 'Houston, the Eagle has landed.'" Reporter J. David Goodman also traces how Texas has quietly become a hub of both government and commercial space activity, from SpaceX launches near Brownsville to Blue Origin and other firms with NASA contracts feeding into Artemis. Not everyone in Houston is tuned in—some residents missed the launch entirely—but officials see a "rebirth" of the space age, backed by new state money and a Texas A&M space institute. For the full picture of Houston's renewed lunar moment, read the original piece in the New York Times. Or take a look inside Mission Control with KPRC.
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