The convention facilities, missions, The Alamo, and the overall historical character of the city bring 26 million visitors every year.
Published Jan 11, 2016
Astronaut photographs from the Gemini era and from the space shuttle reveal tremendous growth.
Published Sep 16, 2001
Taken on February 28, 2010, this astronaut photograph shows Houston at night. Different land uses appear at varying levels of brightness, with bright lights in Houston proper, and no lights in undeveloped areas.
Published Mar 22, 2010
It was Texas hot when this view of the capital city of Austin was taken in late July by astronaut Ed Lu. Adding to the rising temperatures were heated debates in the Texas Capitol Building, where a special session had convened. Eleven senate Democrats thwarted a redistricting vote by disappearing from the state. Were Lu, and his Expedition 7 partner Yuri Malenchenko looking for the missing Democrats? We’ll never know. Astronauts have always enjoyed observing cities around the world. These images of Austin provide a 2003 baseline for monitoring its regional development and growth.
Published Aug 24, 2003
Straddling the border between the United States and Mexico, this metropolitan area is home to more than 5 million people.
Published May 6, 2013
Galveston Island has alternately been a home to Native Americans, a base for Mexico’s rebellion against Spain, a pirate kingdom, a sea port, and even the capital of the Republic of Texas. In September 1900, the city was largely destroyed by a powerful hurricane. This storm damage, combined with construction of the Houston Ship Channel and discovery of oil in eastern Texas, shifted the center of trade northwest to Houston. This astronaut photograph shows some of the human impacts in Galveston that are easily observed from the vantage point of low-Earth orbit. The city of Galveston dominates the eastern half of Galveston Island, appearing as the gray-white region at center right. A large seawall along the Gulf of Mexico—shown here along the southern coastline of Galveston Island—protects most of the city. To the west of Galveston, coastal wetlands are largely submerged by regional subsidence—sinking of the land as a result of ground water withdrawal by the petrochemical industry of Houston and Texas City.
Published Nov 27, 2006
This astronaut photograph features two of China’s most populous cities: Beijing and Tianjin.
Published Dec 27, 2010
Cities, moonlight, and fossil-fuel industries frame the Gulf of Mexico with light.
Published Mar 23, 2015
Though governed by separate countries, the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, merge into an apparently seamless metropolis in this satellite image, but vegetation is confined mostly to the United States' side of the border.
Published Mar 15, 2009
Like most cities in the western United States, the Dallas-Fort Worth area was laid out in a grid pattern.
Published Dec 31, 2012
