NASA Chief Laments Texas School Shooting Near Johnson Space Center

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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, seen here at a NASA town hall meeting at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. on May 17, 2018, expressed anguish at a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas on May 18.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, seen here at a NASA town hall meeting at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. on May 17, 2018, expressed anguish at a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas on May 18. (Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine expressed anguish in response to the news of a school shooting in Texas today (May 18), a tragedy that occurred near the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. 

The shooting occurred at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, which is located 15 miles from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. At least 10 people were killed in the shooting, according to the Houston Chronicle. A suspect, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, is in police custody, and a second person was detained as a person of interest, according to The New York Times.

"I'm devastated to hear of the tragic shooting in Texas near our [NASA Johnson] facility," Bridenstine wrote in a Twitter statement. "My family and I are praying for the students, teachers and the entire Santa Fe community."

NASA's Johnson Space Center is home to the space agency's astronaut corps. It is where astronauts train and prepare for human spaceflight missions. The center is also home to NASA's Mission Control Center for the International Space Station.

"My thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragic shooting in Santa Fe, TX," NASA astronaut Ellen Ochoa, Johnson's current director, said in a Twitter statement. "Our [NASA Johnson] family will come together to support those affected in whatever we can."

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.