Texas Southern University is gearing up to open a new spaceport facility at Ellington Airport, bringing classrooms, hangar space and industry-facing training directly onto the Houston Spaceport campus. University officials say the site is designed to give students a clearer runway from TSU programs into aviation and commercial-space careers.
According to ABC13, the project is a three-way partnership between Texas Southern University, the City of Houston and the Houston Airport System. The station reports that the facility will add office and classroom space for on-site instruction and is expected to support an aerospace engineering program.
TSU has been laying the groundwork to expand its engineering footprint. In its 2026-27 Legislative Appropriations Request, TSU lists “Aerospace Engineering” as an exceptional item, highlighting a broader push to build out new engineering departments and academic programs.
The campus-level plan follows a Houston City Council vote authorizing the Houston Airport System to establish an aviation education hub on a two-acre site at Ellington. In 2023, Click2Houston reported on the council’s approval and the airport system’s initial investment plans, which envisioned hangar, apron and classroom space for student training.
What the facility will include
Public plans and reporting describe a 22,000-square-foot hangar, roughly 20,000 square feet of apron, about 7,200 square feet of office and classroom space and an above-ground aviation fuel tank. The setup is intended to house TSU’s training fleet and support on-site instruction. AviationPros and city materials outline those specifications.
Where it fits in Houston’s space cluster
The TSU facility will sit inside the Houston Spaceport ecosystem at Ellington, which already counts Axiom Space, Intuitive Machines and Collins Aerospace among its anchor tenants and works with education partners like San Jacinto College. Houston Airports notes that the spaceport’s growth strategy is tightly linked to workforce pipelines and partnerships with local colleges and universities.
Why TSU's role matters
For an HBCU like Texas Southern, having hangars and classrooms on the Ellington campus could lower barriers for students aiming at careers in aviation, aerospace manufacturing and engineering. Local economic development reporting and industry analysis suggest that training programs embedded at sites like the spaceport help retain jobs in southeast Houston and bolster plans for a broader Aerospace Institute. Houston.org highlights how colleges are being pulled directly into the spaceport’s long-term workforce strategy.
TSU told local media that the new spaceport facility “will allow students to gain skills and experience to build careers in corporate, aerospace, and commercial aviation.” ABC13 reports the opening as the latest step in a multi-year push to anchor aerospace education at Ellington.
