Did you ever wonder why so much of the space program is based in Houston, Texas? Well, back in the Apollo days, the folks at the actual launch site in the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral controlled the launch of spacecraft until the launching rocket cleared the launch tower. At that point, Houston took over and controlled the rest of the mission, all the way to splashdown in the ocean. Heck, you likely recall one of the most famous phrases ever radioed back to Earth invoked the Texas city, “Houston, we have a problem.” Of course, that’s not what the astronauts actually said. Instead, they actually said “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” which wasn’t quite as cool sounding as the makers of the movie Apollo 13 wanted, so they tightened up the phrasing a bit. Oh, and Gene Kranz, the legendary flight director never said that “failure is not an option.”

But in any case, why Houston? Wouldn’t it have made a lot more sense to just put all that control center stuff at the Cape, right next to where they launch from? Yet, for some reason, the massive bureaucracy that was and is the space flight center ended up in Houston. How come?

Three letters: L – B – J.

First vice president and later President Lyndon Johnson was from Texas, and he wanted lots of governmental infrastructure to be in Texas, with all the economic benefits that come with huge payrolls and lots of construction. He has massive influence and directed as much as he possibly could to his home state.

Which, of course, brings me to the recent Colorado Politics story regarding a few Space Force units moving from Colorado to Florida. Oh, and I’m still not used to typing the words “Space Force.” I first typed Air Force, and then had to correct it. Forgive me, but after 25-plus years wearing Air Force blue, I’m still getting used to this silly new military designation that a certain former president forced through, much like he tried to force the entire Space Force command structure to move to Alabama a couple of days before he left office, but I digress a bit.

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It seems Ron DeSantis is crowing about four relatively small Space Force units moving from Colorado Springs to Florida. Not to be outdone, local congressman Doug Lamborn (who whipped my backside in the 2008 election) announced four other Space Force units will stay here in Colorado, at Peterson Space Force Base and Schriever Air Force Base. I admittedly know nothing of the reasoning behind each particular unit’s basing decisions, but this does follow a pattern over the past couple hundred years or so, of at least some military units being placed where powerful elected officials would like them, rather than where they should be based on a military need.

A while back, if you are old enough, you may recall the Air Force was trying to figure out where to base the new high-speed B-1A bomber. If you’ve been to an Air Force Academy football game, you may well have seen a B-1A flyover as part of the pregame festivities. While some argue about the B1-A’s military utility, it is a heck of a flyover aircraft, as it is unbelievably loud, but I digress…

When the basing decisions on the B1-A were announced, to the surprise of many, one of the very few locations to house the bomber was Dyess Air Force Base in, well, Texas, just outside of Abilene. Now, you might ask why that’s odd, and I can’t talk about all the factors, but just ask yourself, whom we might want to deter with a threat of bombers. And what’s the quickest way there?

Think globes and not flat maps.

North, right? So, some of the bombers ended up in South Dakota and others in Texas. Therefore, the first thousand miles or so that a Texas-based B1-A would fly (and refuel over) would be the U.S. mainland. Makes little sense, right? Why not base them all as far north as possible?

Well, enter another very powerful Texan, then-Sen. John Tower. He wanted the bombers (and all the associated spending) in Texas, and he got what he wanted.

I mention all this because, in addition to the units DeSantis and Lamborn are arguing about, we still are awaiting a final ruling on the lame duck Trump order to move the massive Space Force HQ from its current (and paid for) home in Colorado to Alabama: blue state to reddest of the red states. This move would cost a couple-of-a-billion or so.

Not surprisingly, this issue has united the Colorado elected, with everyone arguing it makes no sense to move from the existing (and did I mention paid for?) location on Peterson SFB. No sense, until you allow rank political goals to kick in.

Aerospace is a huge business in Colorado, but it is alsoa big deal in Alabama and Florida. And, frankly, one of the measures that voters use when deciding whom to vote for has often been about what the elected person seems to have done for the folks back home. Heck, my brother-in-law, an officer and Navy SEAL, spent his last SEAL assignment in Tennessee. Yup, there is a naval unit located in a state which, as I recall, has very limited access to the oceans of the world. But Tennessee did have Al Gore, who as a senator (and with the help of others) urged the Navy to locate this unit and others in The Volunteer State.

I don’t know what the final outcome will be of any of these ongoing basing decisions, but I would hope that they would depend more on military need and military requirements than on rank political power.

That’s not going to happen, of course, but it would be refreshing.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.