Houston Spaceport 

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Houston Spaceport

Houston Spaceport

Owned and managed by the Houston Airport System, and located on a 90-acre site at Ellington Airport, the heart of Space City, the Houston Spaceport is the tenth spaceport in the United States and is the world’s first truly urban commercial spaceport. With close vicinity to NASA Johnson Space Center, the new spaceport and NASA have plans to collaborate and help grow the commercial space flight industry.

Federal Heath was selected by Texas Sterling-Banicki, a heavy civil construction company awarded the design-build contract at the spaceport, to manufacture and install the monument sign for this exciting project.

Having previously worked on the architectural signs at George Bush International Airport, Ellington Airport, and Houston Hobby Airport, we went into this with established, successful experience, capable of managing a project of this complexity.

As a General Contractor, Texas Sterling-Banicki wants a responsive and responsible partner who staffs the work with professionals who will build safely, will maintain schedule, and who brings value to the team. Federal Heath demonstrated those traits and have created an exceptional product.”

- Donald R. Davis, Vice President, Texas Sterling-Banicki JV LLC

Specifications and Scope of Work:

  • The overall footprint of the contrails and HOUSTON SPACEPORT letterset base is 55’ 3” x 36’ 9”
  • It is 16’ 7” to the top of the jet airplane
  • Constructed of steel with painted aluminum cladding for the contrails and airplane
  • ½” wall structural steel pipe was custom ordered and rolled by the steel supplier
  • It was required that the steel be U.S. domestic steel
  • An additional custom template was sent directly to the site location so the GC could properly layout the letterset base foundation
  • Video content was supplied during the construction process to provide timely progress updates to the client

Specific Challenges:

  • The foundations were not in our contract scope, so custom templates were shipped for the contrail footers to the site.
  • The GC had to properly layout and install the footers with our template to ensure the holes for the foundation were drilled exactly as they needed to be for installation of the sign
  • The template showing the location of the footers was one of the most crucial elements of the project.

Through careful planning, stakeholder communication, and teamwork, this beautiful sign now graces the new Houston Spaceport entrance.