Photo Credit: Bijay Dixit

By Phenil Shah

On April 4, 2019, the Indo-American Chamber of Greater Houston, hosted Mr. William Harris- President and CEO of Space center Houston manned space flight education foundation, for its SHELL distinguished lecture series at Double Tree Hilton – Greenway Plaza.

Executive Director Jagdip Ahluwalia opened the event by welcoming the attendees and highlighted the chamber’s upcoming events and the Annual Gala. “We were so impressed with his presentation at the India delegation last year, that we felt there was a need for an initiative and outreach of Space center to our own members and resource partners here.” Said President Swapan Dhairyawan. He also thanked event sponsor Shell for their support and contribution to the chamber.

Mr Harris spoke at the length about the various ongoing initiatives that NASA takes each year and introduced the upcoming programs for the coming year. He emphasized on the fact that there is something for everyone at NASA and that it truly is a dynamic destination where people have a great experience. There are 10 NASA centers across the United States and 14 visitor centers, among which the space center Houston has the most access of laboratories and research of any NASA center in the country. The space center takes pride in the fact that people come to the Space Center Houston where they are able to go behind the scenes to see where the astronauts train, the robotics lab, where everyone can see the real hardware, where the center is developing most advanced humanoid robot in the world that is going to support deep space missions, where one can see the space station control room.

In conclusion, he was excited to share that the space center Houston is trying to present a great engaging experience for all its visitors.  They truly believe and are committed to be an all-inclusive organization where people of all abilities, age, race, ethnicity, gender and learning styles can enjoy. They are constantly improvising on how to make themselves available to everyone and make it one of their most memorable visits.The event concluded with Shell Representatives giving Mr Harris a token of appreciation on behalf of the chamber and an engaging photo session.