Final Destination: U.S. Space Shuttles

[Grom 0]

With the shuttle program in the process of being shuttered, NASA has announced where its orbiters will be heading. If you have a chance to see any of these orbiters, do it. It's worth it. I've seen the Enterprise a few times at Udvar-Hazy and am excited that they will be getting Discovery.

 

 

NASA on Tuesday announced that museums in Virginia, New York, California and Florida - but not Houston, Texas -- will display the four retired space shuttle orbiters after the shuttle program's 30-year mission ends this June.

 

Shuttle Enterprise, the first orbiter built -- but never flown in space -- will be moved from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.

 

Shuttle Discovery, which flew its last mission in March, will go to the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

 

Shuttle Endeavour, making its last flight at the end of April, will be displayed at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

 

Shuttle Atlantis, set to fly the final space shuttle program mission in June, goes to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex in Florida.

 

Houston, You Have a Problem: Notably not selected to house an orbiter, Houston, Texas - considered by NASA as the home of the U.S. human space flight program - felt snubbed by NASA's decision.

 

"We are really disheartened," Richard Allen, president of Space Center Houston told the Houston Chronicle. "I don't think the decision was based on the merits. Houston has a long association with the space shuttle program, of course. All flights were led out of Mission Control at Johnson Space Center, and astronauts who flew aboard the shuttles lived and trained in the community."

 

Since 1961, the Johnson Space Center in Houston, home of "Mission Control," has overseen American human space flight missions including the Gemini orbital missions, the Apollo moon landing missions and, of course, the flights of the space shuttles.

[Vakhtang_Dalsazashvili 0]

I feel sorry for Houston. They're tied to the space program just as much as Kennedy Space Center. Huntsville probably should have as well. I understand the Smithsonian getting one, its the national museum. I can understand the logic behind LA getting one, because of all the testing done at Edwards, plus the orbiters were built in most part at Rockwell there in LA, I if I'm not mistaken, so at least there is a tie to the area. It still wouldn't have chosen them over Houston or Huntsville though.

 

I've been listening to people here in the Dayton area complain about it not being awarded to the USAF Museum. I believe it has a better argument than New York, but not over Houston or Huntsville. My only regret is that I would have been able to see the shuttle delivery to the USAF Museum from my office window.