Exploration Park, the groundbreaking 207-acre aerospace campus planned at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, is gaining momentum as it moves closer to construction. Houston-based KBR, a global leader in human spaceflight and aerospace services, will serve as one of the park’s anchor tenants, operating a 45,000-square-foot space food innovation facility focused on customized food systems, packaging and nutrition to support the growing low Earth orbit economy.   “Exploration Park is designed for companies in the space ecosystem, such as KBR, to develop, produce, and deploy innovative new technologies that support space exploration and commerce,” said Simon Shewmaker, Head of Development at ACMI Properties, the developer behind Exploration Park. “This project is moving expeditiously, and we’re thrilled to sign such an innovative partner in KBR, reflecting our shared commitment to building the essential infrastructure of tomorrow for the next generation of space innovators and explorers.”  Click to expand To help bring the campus to life, ACMI also announced the addition of key project partners: Griffin Partners will serve as co-developer, with Gensler leading design and Walter P Moore overseeing civil engineering.  About Exploration Park Exploration Park is designed to serve as a hub for commercial space innovation and human spaceflight, supporting missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The project builds on Houston’s long-standing reputation as Space City and aims to cement the region’s role as a global leader in the space industry. “For more than 60 years, NASA Johnson has been the hub of human space exploration,” said NASA Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche in a statement. “This Space Systems Campus will be a significant component within our objectives for a robust and durable space economy that will benefit not only the nation’s efforts to explore the Moon, Mars and the asteroids, but all of humanity as the benefits of space exploration research roll home to Earth.”  Click to expand Once complete, the campus will feature at least 20 build-to-suit facilities that can accommodate at least 1.5 million square feet of space. It will support a range of uses including R&D, laboratories, clean rooms, office space and light manufacturing, and will serve key sectors such as aerospace, robotics, life support systems, advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence. Click to expand At the center of the development is the $200 million Texas A&M Space Institute, funded by the Texas Space Commission. The institute, which broke ground last year, is designed to drive collaboration across academic, government and commercial sectors, while also serving as a pipeline for talent through robust workforce training programs.  What’s Next Construction on the first phase of Exploration Park is slated to begin later this year, with completion targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. Discover more about Houston’s aerospace industry.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission has finally concluded after an unexpected nine-month journey to the International Space Station (ISS). The astronauts aboard; Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams and Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, successfully touched down in Florida on Tuesday evening.  Wilmore and Williams launched into space aboard Boeing’s Starliner in June 2024 as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. Originally planned as a one-week mission, their stay was extended due to technical issues with the spacecraft, leading them to join NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission.  NASA reports that during their mission, Williams and Wilmore traveled 121,347,491 miles, spent 286 days in space and completed 4,576 orbits around Earth. However, their prolonged exposure to microgravity could have brought potential health risks. Studies have shown that extended time in space can have a significant impact on the human body, resulting in muscle atrophy, bone density loss, cardiovascular changes, visual impairments and even an increased risk of cancer. This makes post-mission health assessments and continued research critical.  Upon their return to Earth, the astronauts reunited with their families before being flown to Houston for a comprehensive health evaluation and quarantine at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). With long-duration missions becoming more common as NASA prepares for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, the health data from Crew-9’s return will play a vital role in shaping future spaceflight standards.  As a leader in both aerospace and healthcare, Houston is the ideal location for these crucial post-mission assessments. The city is home to world-renowned research institutions like Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), which houses the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), a collaboration with the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. TRISH plays a key role in studying the health impacts of space travel and developing countermeasures to address the challenges astronauts face in space, ensuring their long-term well-being as they prepare for future missions.  While TRISH will not be directly conducting the astronauts' health evaluations, the findings from Crew-9’s return could contribute significantly to its ongoing research efforts.  “NASA conducts all health examinations for its astronauts,” Dr. Dorit Donoviel, Executive Director of TRISH, told the Greater Houston Partnership. “While TRISH is not conducting research on the NASA astronauts who returned from space earlier this week, we are confident that Butch and Suni’s extended stay in space will provide invaluable knowledge and insights that will add to our shared goal with NASA of keeping humans healthy during long-duration space missions. Similar data is collected from TRISH’s commercial spaceflight research program, EXPAND, from civilians. Our goal is to get a comprehensive idea of how the human body responds to spaceflight. Private and public partnerships like these allow for us to all move toward furthering human exploration and continue to examine how the harsh environment of space can challenge the body to better prepare astronauts for future missions.”    Last year, TRISH announced a new initiative with Blue Origin, an aerospace company known for its reusable rocket engines, to conduct biomedical research on passengers flying on the company’s New Shepard rocket.  “This initiative enables TRISH to further our research in space medicine by collecting valuable human health data,” said Jimmy Wu, TRISH deputy director and chief engineer and assistant professor at BCM, in a news release. “New data from suborbital flights builds our understanding of how the human body responds to spaceflight. This holistic view is key in keeping humans healthy and safe in space.”  Splashdown confirmed! #Crew9 is now back on Earth in their @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. pic.twitter.com/G5tVyqFbAu — NASA (@NASA) March 18, 2025 Learn more about Houston’s aerospace industry.