MISSION MOON
HOW 50 YEARS OF SPACE EXPLORATION DEFINED HOUSTON
Our special anniversary coverage of the July 20, 1969, moon landing continues today with tips for finding the best space kitsch near NASA. Would you like an astronaut with those fries?
Follow the Mission Moon series at houstonchronicle.com/missionmoon.
He’s a space pelican.
On the side of NASA Parkway, a lone pelican statue stands, his eyes ever fixed on the horizon. Like the dozens of others in Seabrook, this pelican is a piece of public art commissioned as part of the Pelicans on Parade collection, first launched in 2001. But unlike the rest of his flock, this bird is suited up for a spacewalk, wearing one of the white suits reserved for astronauts’ extravehicular activities.
“That’s Wally,” said LeaAnn Petersen, a spokeswoman for the city of Seabrook, who heads up the pelican program.
Wally was commissioned by John and Betty Burkland, who
own Technical Automation Services Corporation, the business at 2000 NASA Parkway, right behind Wally’s perch.
“They wanted to do a tribute to the space program,” Petersen said. “And over the years, we’ve had a lot of astronauts that have lived in Seabrook, a lot of people who work at the Space Center and NASA and live in Seabrook. So this seemed like a good tribute.”
Wally is one of 44 of these bird structures. And while he’s currently the only extraterrestrial pelican on the path, he was at one time joined by Mission Control Mike, who sported a blue short-sleeved, button-up complete with a pocket protector and a silver NASA tie.
“I don’t know where Mike went, though,” Petersen said. “Sometimes when the businesses leave, they take their pelicans with them.”
These tie-ins to the prevailing attraction in the Seabrook area just make sense, Petersen says. Especially as the calendar turns toward July 20, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk.
“The Space Center attracts visitors and even our hotels put NASA and space engines in the name, so they show up in search engines,” she said.
NASA Parkway stretches roughly 8 miles between Highway 45 and Highway 146, connecting the communities of Webster and Seabrook to the Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston. Spend an afternoon cruising back and forth from one end of the parkway to the other, and you’ll get a front-row seat for some of Houston’s best kitsch.
And it’s not just Googlefriendly hotels that take this approach to coming up with names along the street. To reach the Space Center from Wally’s perch, drivers must head past NASA Laundromat, Apollo Tire & Wheel, Space City Iron and the Endeavor luxury condominium complex, to name a few businesses along that portion of the route.
And then, just outside the Space Center, drivers will find what might just be the crown jewel of the street: A McDonald’s with an 18-foot-tall fiberglass astronaut spacewalking on the roof with an order of fries in his gloved hand.
“Everyone wants to play on a winner,” said Kenneth Kades, who owns the McDonald’s at 1421 NASA Parkway, along with more than 50 others throughout the area. “And NASA is a big attraction here, obviously.”
Kades can’t remember the exact year he commissioned an Austin artist to build his unnamed astronaut. But it’s been about 20 years since it was installed on the roof, along with a diorama that has since been taken down after a couple of hurricanes revealed it wasn’t as resilient as the astronaut itself.
“We did it because we thought it was fun,” Kades said. “And obviously, it’s the attraction of where we’re at. And people come here to see NASA, so it’s really about the tourism, not about the locals.”
Each day, the restaurant receives tour buses full of visitors hungry for a selfie in front of the installation — and maybe a side of fries. And where else are you going to find something like this?
“There are limited McDonald’s that are themed. Very, very limited across the country,” said Christopher Stanley, a Spring-based spokesman for the restaurant chain.
There were more in the 1980s and 1990s, but since kitsch has gone out of style, the themed restaurants have faded away, too.
But not this one, which in addition to the sky-high art installation, has a special indoor playground. Typically branded “Play Place,” this particular McD’s instead boasts a “Play Space,” with murals of Ronald McDonald and his friends floating in the great black beyond, for which Kades had to get special permission from the chain’s corporate headquarters.
This, too, is a big hit with tourists.
“I think things like this, it’s about identity,” said Wayne Sabo, city manager of the city of Webster, which claims ownership of the western half of the parkway. “People want to identify with Johnson Space Center, because that’s the No. 1 attraction in the entire region.”
Take a right out of the McDonald’s parking lot to continue along the parkway’s path, and you’ll pass NASA Health Clinic, before spotting Challenger Plaza and the Webster Presbyterian Church, which boasts stained-glass depictions of the moon missions, and a publicschool playground gussied up with rocket-ship apparatus near the end of the parkway, where it meets Interstate 45.
Sabo notes that Webster has a residential population of 11,000 people, but the daytime population is closer to 200,000.
“People come from all over the world to go to NASA,” he said, “so naturally businesses and the community want to capitalize on that.”
“I think things like this, it’s about identity. People want to identify with Johnson Space Center, because that’s the No. 1 attraction in the entire region.”
— Wayne Sabo, city manager of Webster