Texas Would Own Key NASA Assets If it Became Independent

Texas would be legally entitled to own NASA assets based in the state if it became an independent country, and it could use them in subsequent negotiations with the United States, according to an academic who specializes in secessionist movements.

The claim was made by Professor Matt Qvortrup, author of I Want to Break Free: A Practical Guide to Making a New Country, in an interview with Newsweek. Daniel Miller, president of the pro-independence Texas Nationalist Movement, said an independent Texas would like to continue working with NASA along with other agencies and private companies, adding: “Who knows? Maybe the first flag planted on Mars will the Texas flag.”

Interest in Texan independence has surged over the past few weeks in response to the ongoing standoff between Governor Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over illegal immigration. In response to a January Supreme Court ruling allowing federal agents to remove razor wire from the southern border, Abbott claimed Texas was being “invaded” and invoked the state’s “constitutional authority to defend and protect itself.”

Speaking to Newsweek about the impact of Texan independence, Qvortrup commented: “NASA is an interesting case. Technically, it would belong to Texas as it is in Texas. For example, the Soviet nukes in Ukraine belonged to Kiev after independence.

“And in Quebec, the federal government moved all fighter jets and all sensitive equipment out of that Canadian province on the eve of the 1995 independence referendum for fear that it would be seized by a Quebecois government in the event of a yes vote. NASA would be too expensive for Texas to be run alone, but it will be a good bargaining chip in the event of a yes vote in a future referendum. So too, is the fact that a new country does not have to service the debt of [the] former country.”

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union that were based on its territory when it declared independence in 1991, though it agreed to give them up years later in return for security guarantees from the United States, Russia and Britain.

According to its website, NASA, which is federally funded, has nearly 11,800 “contract and civil service employees” in Texas, including at the Houston’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, with the agency claiming to spend over $2.5 billion per year in the state.

Speaking to Newsweek, Miller argued an independent Texas could be at the forefront of space exploration and the global space industry, noting SpaceX’s strong presence in the state, including its Starbase spaceport at Boca Chica.

He said: “International cooperation is vital to the advancement of space exploration. However, we are in a time where space innovation is being driven by the private sector.

“Not only would an independent Texas be able to work with NASA or the ESA [European Space Agency], but we are also home to SpaceX who is currently rewriting the book on manned space exploration. We are proud that the next chapter in the story of the space industry is being written right here in Texas. Who knows? Maybe the first flag planted on Mars will the Texas flag.”

Newsweek approached NASA for comment by email.

A Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey of 814 eligible Texan voters conducted for Newsweek from February 1 to 3 found 23 percent would vote for independence in a hypothetical secessionist referendum, versus 67 percent who want Texas to remain “a state within the United States.”

However, in more promising news for Texan nationalists, the survey also found 44 percent of Texans are either more likely or significantly more likely to support independence due to the ongoing migrant crisis. Another 35 percent said this made no difference to their calculations, while 16 percent said it made them more supportive of the American Union.