page_title: Economy of Houston
section_title: Aerospace
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Houston / Manufacturing and industry / Aerospace
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the Shuttle Challenger atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), NASA-905, during its return to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and flyover of the Johnson Space Center (JSC) at southeast edge of Houston on Saturday, April 9, 1983. Features a NASA Boeing 747-100.
context_page_description: The economy of Houston is based primarily on the energy industry, particularly oil. However, health care, biomedical research, and aerospace also constitute large sectors. In 2012, the gross domestic product of the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area was $449 billion, the fourth-largest of any metro area in the United States. The Houston metropolitan area comprises the largest concentration of petrochemical manufacturing in the world, including for synthetic rubber, insecticides, and fertilizers. It is the world's leading center for oilfield equipment construction, with the city of Houston home to more than 3,000 energy-related businesses, including many of the top oil and gas exploration and production firms and petroleum pipeline operators. As of 2011, 23 companies on the Fortune 500 list have their headquarters in, or around, Houston.
  The Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area ranked 33rd among the nation's 361 MSAs on per capita personal income at US$36,852 - 11.5 percent higher than the national figure of US$33,050.
context_section_description: Houston is home to the Johnson Space Center, NASA's largest research and development facility, employing nearly 3,000 federal civil service workers and more than 14,000 contract personnel. Program offices for Project Constellation, Orion, and other new space vehicle projects will create new jobs at the center. The city's burgeoning aerospace industry heralded its second growth spurt, which solidified with the 1973 oil crisis. The majority of the contractor work force related to the projects will also be located at the center. Texas Governor Rick Perry recently announced a $7.5 million Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) grant to Lockheed Martin, which will bring about 1,000 jobs to the Houston area. The grant ensures that Lockheed Martin will create these jobs in the Houston area after they earned a multibillion-dollar contract from NASA to build the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Houston is also home to the United Space Alliance, which employs well over 10,000 people.
caption: The space shuttle, atop its Boeing 747, flying over NASA's Johnson Space Center
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