Mayor reacts, blames politics

Space City snubbed: It's no space shuttle for Houston

Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Endeavour
The scene at the announcement.
Houston's Bring the Shuttle Home rally
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Space Shuttle Atlantis

Houston, we have a problem. In a decision that was disappointing — if not surprising — Space City was bypassed as a destination for all of the soon-to-be-retired space shuttles.

On Tuesday, the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle program, NASA administrator Charles Bolden announced from Florida that Houston — despite being the home of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, which houses mission control and the astronaut training facilities — will not get any of the shuttles.

After having to sit through an announcement that included a long video on the history of the space program narrated by William Shatner and a live cut-in from the international space station, the news only got gloomy for Houston.

With shuttle Discovery already set to be displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., over 20 museums and other centers were competing to house space shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis as well as shuttle prototype Enterprise, which never went to space.

Endeavour and Atlantis are headed to California (the California Science Center) and Florida (the Kennedy Space Center) respectively. The Enterprise will go to the Intrepid Sea-Air Space Museum in New York.

The fight for the shuttles turned out to be extremely competitive with organizations from New York to Seattle to Dayton, Ohio submitting proposals and renderings of potential space shuttle exhibits and displays.

After a slow start to its own campaign, Houston got in the mix with a Bring the Shuttle Home rally in front of City Hall on April 6 which featured strong words of support from local politicians as well as the widows of astronauts who died in the Challenger and Columbia disasters.

But it turned out to make little difference.

"It's been a rough day," Bolden said in the middle of his announcement.

Not as rough as it's been for Houston.

"This is certainly disappointing, but not entirely unexpected as the Administration has been hinting that Houston would not be a winner in this political competition," Mayor Annise Parker said in a statement. "I am disappointed for Houston, the JSC family and the survivors of the Columbia and Challenger missions who paid the ultimate price for the advancement of space exploration.

"There was no other city with our history of human space flight or more deserving of a retiring orbiter. It is unfortunate that political calculations have prevailed in the final decision."

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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.”