William Harris, President & CEO, Space Center Houston

In an interview with Invest:, William Harris, president and CEO of Space Center Houston, discussed navigating softer international tourism, expanding its education and visitor infrastructure, and deepening its role in workforce development for the growing space economy. “We are focused on inspiring people, especially young people, to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways that can support the space industry,” Harris said.

What major trends are shaping Space Center Houston?
I call 2025 the Great Year of Disruption. We saw a change of administration and broader changes in policies and practices that had ripple effects not only across the U.S. economy, but globally. At Space Center Houston, one of the biggest impacts was a decline in tourism. We still welcomed visitors, but not at the same levels, so we adjusted by promoting more assertively in the domestic market.

Even with that disruption, we finished the year strong. We were down about 10% from forecast on attendance, but per-capita spending was higher, so the guests who came were spending more. That meant our business performance remained solid. Our public-service mission also remained unchanged. We exist to be the public interface for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as well as for the commercial space sector and human space exploration more broadly.

On that front, 2025 was still an extraordinary year. Robotic missions to the Moon continued successfully, the Artemis program kept progressing toward a long-term human presence on the Moon, and commercial innovation remained active. NASA Johnson Space Center has reconfigured facilities to test lunar vehicles, and we premiered three finalist lunar rovers for the public to see. Innovation has not slowed down.

How is Space Center Houston contributing to workforce development in the space sector?
Workforce development is one of our highest priorities. We are focused on inspiring people, especially young people, to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways that support the space industry. That starts early, but it also includes adults who want to transition into the field.

One of our key initiatives is Accelerate Space, which is a reskilling program for people already in the workforce. It serves everyone from recent college graduates to professionals in their 60s who may be working in another sector and want to move into space-related careers. We have just graduated our fifth cohort, and we have had strong success in placing those participants into the industry.

We are also seeing huge demand for our youth learning programs. We are doubling the size of our education facilities because demand remains extremely strong. We offer one-day to five-day programs year-round, and interest in Space Center University, which serves students ages 11 through 18, continues to grow, especially internationally. I particularly enjoy mixing students from different countries because space exploration is fundamentally about teamwork. It is one of the most powerful ways to teach that effective teams are essential and that success comes from drawing on the strengths of different people and perspectives.

How is Texas’ commitment to the space economy translating into opportunities for Houston and Space Center Houston?
Texas has made a major commitment to growing the space economy, and we were active participants in helping to establish the Texas Space Commission. That was a landmark development because, for the first time, the state created an agency with funding specifically to advance the space sector. Through a competitive grant process, the commission now invests in institutions and organizations across the state that are helping grow the industry.

The legislature has since added more funding, and that investment is already proving fruitful. Eighteen of the top 20 aerospace companies are located in Texas, and while the ecosystem is statewide, its nexus is in the Houston area. That creates a tremendous opportunity for the region.

We continue to play a meaningful role in that ecosystem. We convene people, build educational pipelines, and strengthen international connections. One example is our Space Exploration Educators Conference, which drew 200 participants from Latin America this past year, including 140 from Mexico. We have also been developing strategic alliances with institutions such as Tecnológico de Monterrey and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). We see space exploration as fundamentally unifying. It brings cultures together around common goals, and Houston is well-positioned to lead that conversation.

How are your facility investments supporting visitor growth and educational demand?
We are following a strategic framework supported by a board-approved multiyear expansion. We currently welcome about 1.2 million visitors annually, and we project that to grow to 2 million over time. Of our current visitors, roughly 300,000 are youth and educators participating in our learning programs, so our facilities need to support both public visitation and more specialized educational experiences.

Our immediate priority is expanding the Dhaval Jadav Learning Innovation Center. This is the area where many of our facilitated learning programs take place, and demand has exceeded our capacity for some time. The expansion, opening in April, will double the size of that center and allow us to serve many more participants.

What makes that especially exciting is that it will include a payload development lab, a cylindrical training environment that was used for shuttle-era astronaut preparation, particularly around medical tests and devices. NASA Johnson Space Center has given that to us, and now program participants will be able to learn inside a real astronaut training environment. That is one of the many “only here” experiences that make Space Center Houston unique.

What are your top priorities for Space Center Houston over the next few years?
Our first major priority is implementing the expansion plan in ways that improve the guest experience. We outgrew our building several years ago, but we have improved our guest flow to deliver a high-quality experience. A good example is our tram tour. When I started here, we could take about 200,000 people a year behind the scenes at NASA Johnson Space Center. Last year, we took 1 million. That reflects how much more effective we have become in serving a much larger audience.

The second priority is increasing capacity for our learning programs. People are enrolling because they see value, and we know these programs work. Many participants have gone on to become flight directors or have built successful careers in other sectors.

To strengthen that even further, we are evaluating all of our programs through a STEM identity framework. The idea is simple: if a young person can see themselves as an engineer, a technician, or a scientist, they are more likely to pursue that path and succeed in it. We want to measure how effectively our programs build that sense of possibility and then use the data to improve them. I am focused on evaluation and making sure every program delivers maximum value.

Our third priority is to continue building international alliances. There are now more than 80 government-affiliated space agencies worldwide, and many are looking to Houston as a place to connect and collaborate. We welcome that and see it as essential to advancing human space exploration.

What is your broader outlook as you look ahead?
I am optimistic about the future. We are living through a period of rapid change, especially with generative machine learning and other emerging technologies, but I see those as tools, not solutions in themselves. The real work still belongs to human beings — our curiosity, our creativity, and our ability to solve problems together.

That belief underpins everything we do here. We try to help every individual understand that they are capable of more than they think. Too often, people set their own boundaries too narrowly. We want to help them push those boundaries outward.