Houston Astrodome and the birth of AstroTurf

When natural grass failed to thrive under the Astrodome's domed roof, team and stadium officials sought an alternative and contracted for the first large-scale installation of an artificial playing surface. The synthetic turf installed for the Astrodome's 1966 season became commercially known as AstroTurf and was widely adopted by other indoor stadiums. The Astrodome's turf experiment is often cited in histories of sports-surface technology.