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By Fay Harvey����

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has approved multiple campus construction and improvement projects that total over half-a-billion dollars. The record-setting vote reflects the A&M System’s legislative success in 2023 when a record $1.19 billion in new spending, including $775 million in new initiatives, was approved by the state, according to a statement by the university system.��

Among the approved projects is a $200 million, four-story research center that will focus on space exploration, specifically assisting in missions to the moon and to Mars. The new building, the Texas A&M University Space Institute, will sit on a 32-acre site and will house classrooms and research laboratories devoted to robots and vehicles as well as offices, classrooms and auditoriums. Construction is slated to begin in January. ��

Additionally, the regents approved the construction of a $10 million Hypersonic Wind Tunnel that is poised to become the largest academic facility of its kind in the nation. Large-scale aerodynamic testing, ranging from Mach 5 to 9, will be conducted at the new facility and will go hand in hand with research at the Ballistics Aero-optics and Materials (BAM) Range and the Detonation Research Test Facility. Construction on the wind tunnel will begin in December. ��

Construction will also begin in December on a $21.69 million, state-of-the-art Educare San Antonio facility, which will serve children ages six weeks old through kindergarten. The project will mark Texas’s first Educare school, and the facility will join a national network of 25 schools dedicated to early childhood education. The lab-school will also provide hands-on experience for students at Texas A&M-San Antonio.��

An additional $25.3 million in approved funds will go towards an 86-acre site purposed for a Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service facility and will eventually serve the program’s headquarters. The facility will offer training and technical assistance in fire and rescue, infrastructure and safety, law enforcement, economic and workforce development, cybersecurity and homeland security. The site will also include a driving track, an urban simulation grid, skills pad and classrooms.��

“This agenda not only underscores the great needs of the state and nation,” said Chancellor John Sharp in a statement. “It is only possible thanks to the foresight and commitment of our state leaders.”��

Other funding approved will go towards private and public athletic renovations, a new veterinary research complex, a $7.4 million student dining hall and $74.9 million in utility and HVAC upgrades on College Station campus.��