Space City Snub?

Rocketing emotions: Houston rallies, but Washington has to listen for spaceshuttle to come home

An inflatable shuttle marked the occasion outside city hall
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Mayor Annise Parker said the effort to get the shuttle had her full 100 percentsupport, and she admitted she found it "frustrating" to even have to make theargument.
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Mascots and city officials gather to "bring the shuttle home"
Photo by Sarah Rufca
The marching band from the Raul Yzaguirre School For Success performed as well.
Photo by Sarah Rufca

When the final three space shuttles are formally retired this year, where should they go for retirement?

Logic and a bit of common sense says one could go in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, another could hang out at Cape Canaveral in Florida, with a third finding a home in Houston, right? Not so fast.

"You like to think that decisions made in Washington are always logical," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said at Houston's Bring The Shuttle Home rally on Wednesday. "They're not."

The current competition to land a shuttle has gotten intense, with 30 cities submitting applications. That's why Houston has turned on the press machine, declaring Wednesday "Bring The Shuttle Home" day in Houston and organizing a rally outside city hall.

City council members, Houston sports mascots, Astros announcer Milo Hamilton and representatives from NASA were all on hand to argue that no other city can claim a piece of space history like we can.

"NASA is ours," said Mayor Annise Parker, who arrived late after finishing up city council meeting business. "These are our friends, our neighbors, and we will take care of it with the care and concern only a family can have."

Parker and others urged people to log on to bringtheshuttlehome.com and write or call their congressman to advocate to get the shuttle in Houston. The decision about where the three shuttles will go is set for April 12.

The event also drove home the point that Houston has earned a shuttle not only from achievement but through sacrifice. Evelyn Husband Thompson — the widow of astronaut Rick Husband, who died in the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003 — represented a trio of NASA widows from both the Columbia and Challenger tragedies. Husband Thompson said that astronauts and their families have made a home in Houston.

"New York is great, but New York doesn't have astronauts or mission control," she said. Husband Thompson ended by quoting Rep. Pete Olson's argument that no one has "shed more tears or found more pain" from the space mission tragedies than Houston.

Appealing to logic and emotion. If that doesn't work, I don't know what will.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”