[Gracey]

NASA was deliberately used to get some economic industry going in the South. True, placing the Johnson...

Personally, I'd say it had less to do with economic development in the South and more to do with locating it on property owned by the Vice President Johnson's family. The Johnson's made a lot of money... It would have been much more feasible and cost effective to the taxpayers if they chose to locate Mission Control/Astronaut training in Cape Canaveral area, close to the launch site. Don't you think??? At the time, Florida had very little industry, outside of the citrus business.

[RightWhale]

That's what I said, although not so directly. The US Space Center siting could have been anywhere, but they put it where there wasn't much going on in relation to the space program; it was an arbitrary decision. NASA has facilities all over the US anyway, but putting JSC where they did was obviously a case of LBJ influence in bringing the pork home. It's hard to fault NASA since they wanted to distribute the economic bennies widely.