Houston, the largest city in southwestern Texas, is not only an important industrial and commercial financial center in the United States, but also a famous manned space industry center in the United States. Houston is adjacent to Galveston Bay in the southeast, and the Houston Canal connects Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is a city with a good deep-water port. Johnson Space Center is located on the west bank of Lake Clearer in harris county, southeast of Houston, covering an area of 656.5438+0 hectares, about 40 kilometers away from downtown Houston. Because of the settlement of Johnson Space Center and its outstanding achievements in the manned space program in the United States, Houston is world-famous and has brought considerable social and economic benefits to its development. Under the aura of Johnson Space Center, Houston is also shining, almost becoming synonymous with Johnson Space Center. When Houston is mentioned, people will think of the famous Johnson Space Center.
Johnson Space Center is divided into office area, living area and sightseeing area. There are more than 100 buildings of various sizes in the office area, including all kinds of equipment and facilities for carrying out manned space program and applied research. In the living area, there is an entertainment center-Gillies Center, which is named after its first leader, Robert Gillies. There is a gym, a classroom, a conference room and a banquet hall in the building of the entertainment center. There are four softball fields, a soccer field, two fitness runways and two picnic booths outside the building. This tourist area, named Houston Space Center, is open to the outside world and receives tens of thousands of domestic and foreign tourists every year.
Johnson Space Center staff are divided into two parts: federal employees and contractors. They wear gold and black badges (gold and black badges) to show the difference. There are more than 3,000 federal employees, except 100 astronauts, most of whom are professional engineers and researchers. About 50 main contractors signed contracts with Johnson Space Center, and more than 65,438+02,000 people were employed as the staff of Johnson Space Center, bringing the total number of employees of Johnson Space Center to about 65,438+05,000.
The core leaders of Johnson Space Center include the director, deputy director, assistant director, chief engineer and chief financial officer. On June 7, 2005, 49-year-old Michael Coates was ordered to replace Jefferson Howell as the new director of the Johnson Space Center and become the ninth director of the center. Michael Coates has performed three space shuttle missions as an astronaut. He retired from NASA and the Navy in 199 1.
Johnson Space Center consists of Public Relations Department, Education Department, Human Resources Department, Equal Opportunities and Differences Department, Legal Department, Communications and Public Affairs Department, Material Supply Department, Flight Crew Activity Planning and Implementation Department, Mission Planning and Implementation Department, Engineering Department, Information Resources Department, Central Activity Planning and Implementation Department, Astronomical Materials Research and Exploration Department, Space Shuttle Planning Department, Security and Mission Support Department, International.
Johnson Space Center is responsible for the design, development and testing of manned space flight in the United States. So far, he has been responsible for the implementation of manned space programs such as Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and International Space Station. Among the many functions of Johnson Space Center, two functions, namely mission control and astronaut selection and training, have attracted worldwide attention.
Since 1957, the Soviet Union has successfully launched a series of artificial earth satellites and biological satellites, especially the first manned space program that the Soviet Union is secretly implementing-the Oriental Plan, which greatly stimulated and shocked the United States. The United States is determined to devote itself to a wide range of space exploration programs, including manned space flight, and has begun a "space race" with the Soviet Union in the space field. 1958165438+10 In October, the United States established and began to implement its first manned space program-project mercury. To this end, NASA decided to re-integrate the work done by the laboratory and the military under the former National Aviation Advisory Committee into a more organic whole. 1958165438+1On October 5th, the Space Task Force (STG) was established in Langley Research Center, Virginia, and was responsible for the implementation of the project mercury. Robert Gillis, the head of the space mission team, later became the first leader of the Johnson Space Center.
Project mercury mobilized the resources and strength of people, army, industry, enterprises and academia. From 1959 to 196 1, the space task force trained seven military test pilots as astronauts in project mercury. 1961April 12, Soviet astronaut yuri gagarin made his sensational earth orbit flight. Gagarin's flight prompted NASA to make up its mind to build an independent manned space program-manned spacecraft center, whose main tasks are: designing, developing and testing manned spacecraft and related systems; Selecting and training astronauts; Planning and carrying out manned missions; Participate extensively in medical, engineering and scientific experiments to help people understand and improve their environment.