SMG History

SMG History

The National Weather Service (known as the Weather Bureau before 1970), has provided direct weather support to NASA for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, Orion, and other programs. When the Manned Space Center opened in Houston in 1962, a contingent of the Weather Bureau also came to Houston to provide spacecraft recovery weather support. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Spaceflight Meteorology "Branch" (SMB) of the Weather Bureau consisted of offices at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Cape Canaveral, Florida, and at Weather Bureau offices in Miami, Honolulu, and Washington DC. In the late 1970s, NASA allowed each center to select their weather support structures. At that time, KSC opted to use the USAF for weather support. JSC opted to retain the National Weather Service for weather support services.