Johnson Space Center (NASA)

The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's facility for human spaceflight activities. The Center consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on 1,620 acres of land located in southeast Houston, Texas.

The JSC is home to the United States astronaut corps and is responsible for training astronauts from both the U.S. and its international partners.

The Center, originally known as the Manned Spacecraft Center and built on land donated by Rice University, was opened in 1963, near the conclusion of Project Mercury. In 1973, it was renamed in honor of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 37th President of the United States.

The JSC is home to NASA's Mission Control Center (MCC-H), which coordinates and monitors all human spaceflights for the United States. MCC-H directs all Space Shuttle missions and activities aboard the International Space Station (the original Mission Control Center, a National Historic Landmark, can be found in building 30).

The Center handles most of the planning and training of the US astronaut corps and houses training facilities such as the Sonny Carter Training Facility and the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a critical component in the training of astronauts for spacewalks.

The center is also responsible for operations at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico (which serves as a backup Shuttle landing site and as the coordinating facility for the upcoming Constellation program, which will replace the Space Shuttle program after 2010).

Space Center Houston is the official visitors center of the JSC.

www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/index.html

www.spacecenter.org/