How Houston became Space City

Catch up quick: President John F. Kennedy pledged to Congress in 1961 that the U.S. would send men to the Moon three years after NASA was created.

• Existing facilities at NASA Langley in Virginia, where the agency developed its Mercury missions for low-Earth orbit, were too small to accommodate the Moon-bound undertaking.

Flashback: The agency compiled 23 potential sites nationwide based on criteria including proximity to waterways, Department of Defense facilities and universities, according to NASA.

The intrigue: Tampa, Florida, was the initial favorite.

Yes, but: Vice President Lyndon Johnson and U.S. Rep. Albert Thomas, a Houston Democrat who chaired the House Appropriations Committee at the time, used their political prowess to sway NASA leadership into landing on Houston.

• The pair, along with Rice University president Kenneth Pitzer, met with NASA officials to tour the future site near Clear Lake in August 1961, per the Houston Chronicle. NASA announced Houston as the winner a month later.

The bottom line: Months later, in 1962, Kennedy delivered his Moon Shot speech at Rice University.

• And the rest is history.