NASA chief announces Alabama facility as moon spacecraft headquarters

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Friday said Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will anchor the U.S. space agency's programme to build a spacecraft to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024, a boon for the state and a disappointment for Texas. Bridenstine, accompanied by U.S. lawmakers from Alabama, made the announcement about the NASA Artemis lunar programme at the Huntsville facility in front of a 149-foot-tall (45 meters) test version of a fuel tank for NASA's heavy-lift moon rocket, the Space Launch System. The announcement, which promises to bring jobs and prestige to Alabama, disappointed lawmakers from Texas who had lobbied for the lunar lander programme to be headquartered at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which under NASA's announcement will play a secondary role.