Texas and Florida are the leading two Republican states in the country.
Now, they are going toe to toe.
And Florida and Texas are fighting to sway Donald Trump over one major decision.
Florida and Texas compete for NASA headquarters
Texas and Florida are the two most important states to the country’s space program.
Now, they are going head-to-head over the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Florida’s Space Coast is home to Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Those two bases are where every manned NASA space flight was made from 1961 to the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
Houston, Texas is home to the Johnson Space Center, where NASA’s Mission Control Center is located.
Mission Control oversaw the space race of the 1960s and the moon landings.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first words after landing on the moon to earth were to Houston.
“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,” Armstrong said.
The lease on NASA’s Washington, D.C. headquarters expires in 2028.
NASA is looking for a new headquarters in the area to lease.
But President Donald Trump has supported moving federal agencies throughout the country.
Florida and Texas are already lobbying to have NASA headquarters relocated to their state.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is urging the Trump administration to move NASA to the Houston area.
“Texas will be the launchpad for Mars and the future of space exploration,” Abbott Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris told Politico.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk based his space exploration company in South Texas but has also launched rockets from Florida.
Ron DeSantis makes his pitch to move NASA to Florida
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis estimated that moving NASA to Florida would save taxpayers about $1 billion.
U.S. Senator Ashley Moody (R-FL) argued that NASA should move to the Space Coast on social media.
“We need to move [NASA’s] headquarters to Florida’s Space Coast. The move would save taxpayers money, encourage collaboration with private space companies, and tap into Florida’s talented workforce in the aerospace industry to spur further innovation,” Moody wrote on X.
DeSantis chimed in and noted that the NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. was mostly empty.
“This is a no-brainer for [DOGE],” DeSantis replied to Moody’s post. “Right now, the Feds are planning on a building a new, expensive headquarters in DC for NASA — even though very few NASA employees have showed up to the current DC office over the past four years!”
The Office of Management and Budget sent out a memo to federal agencies to consider relocating outside of the Washington, D.C. area.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) told reporters that he would welcome NASA to Houston.
“That’d be a conversation I’d be very happy to have,” Cruz said at the Commercial Space Federation’s conference.
A space industry insider warned that a Democrat winning the 2028 Election could make any potential move for naught.
“It’d be like a Space Command, right?” the insider told Politico. “Trump sent it to Huntsville, Biden moved it to Colorado, and now Trump is bringing it back.”
Moving to Florida or Texas would be the biggest move that NASA has made in decades.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
