*Gunman kills hostage and self at NASA*

By Bruce Nichols

HOUSTON (Reuters) - An armed man killed a hostage, then himself, at
NASA's Johnson Space Center on Friday, the latest incident to rattle the
United States after the shooting massacre this week at Virginia Tech
university.

Another hostage, a woman who was gagged and bound, was not harmed,
police said.

No motive was known for the incident, which began about 1:40 p.m. local
time (7:40 p.m. British time) when the gunman went into a building
brandishing a gun and was heard to fire at least two shots. The man, who
had not yet been identified, barricaded himself into a room.

Workers quickly evacuated and heavily armed police moved in.

As they drew closer, they heard a shot and went in to find the gunman
and his male hostage dead, said Houston Police Department spokesman
Dwayne Ready.

"As our SWAT members made entry, they did indeed determine that the
suspect shot himself one time to the head," Ready said.

"Also, on the same floor there was one other hostage that was shot. We
believe that may have occurred in the early minutes of this whole ordeal."

The other hostage, a woman, was found nearby, alive and unharmed.

Ready also said he did not know the man's identity, but said he was a
white male in his 50s.

A spokesman for Pasadena, California-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
said police had told the company the gunman was their employee. Jacobs
provides engineering work for the space agency.

The incident added to jitters across the United States after a student
gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university on Monday, in the
worst shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

Building 44, where the shooting took place, is slightly separated from
most of the space center, which is a sprawling 1,600-acre (650-hectare)
campus, home to NASA's Mission Control and the center of training for
the space agency's astronaut corps.

NASA officials said the incident was not affecting operations, which
include flight control for the International Space Station.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Franks, Erwin Seba, Anna Driver and Eileen
O'Grady in Houston and David Morgan in Washington)