Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Where Shuttles go after they Retire


NASA.Gov has release the final resting place of four shuttle orbiters.

At the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program - Shuttle Enterprise will move from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York. Discovery will reside at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Endeavour, which is preparing for its final flight at the end of the month, will go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Atlantis, which will fly the last planned shuttle mission in June, will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

Complete NASA article here

7 comments:

Horacio said...

There should be one at Houston, Mission Control, anyone remember that? What are the first words out of Astronaut's mouth when in space? Houston, that's what. What a travesty and slap in the face for Houston. Screw you NASA.

Beam Me Up said...

Horacio
you know I totally spaced that and now I am floored!

You know this has the smell of politics again. LBJ being the SOB he was said that there would be no moon landing because he would cut all funding unless mission control was passed off to his home state. Huston was going to have a place in history no matter what the hippies in coco beach thought. And I know that caused a LOT of hard feelings. I just can't imagine that there are enough of the old school still there to cut Houston out. And at this point Houston should NOT be out of luck. The Eagle did not report to Miami when it switched its call to Tranquility Base and Apollo 13 did not report Miami we have a problem....Politics aside, Houston IS in the history books and deserves a place well above New York! This is childish behavior and needs to be rectified asap.

John said...

Yeah, I'm with Horacio on this one... This is straight politics at work and it's so obvious that there was favoritism at play... Thanks Mr. Bolton. ;0)

What's more is that in his press release he stated that the areas chosen would have rich and deep histories with NASA and the program in general... Well, excuse me but how does NYC fit into this (same could be said with CA)??? There is no argument that one could make which would portray NYC as having a more pivotal role in the program when compared to Houston... This... Is... BS. ;)

Beam Me Up said...

John
that is what floored me when the afterglow faded (I was honestly afraid that if no one took the shuttles they would be left to rot...I know how clueless !) I hope you don't take my comments about how Mission Control was originally formed... that's just history, nothing more and in no way does it lessen the right of Huston to have a shuttle. The fact of the matter is that Mission Control Huston IS space history then now and will be and as such has a legitimate right to ANY historical hardware. This is beginning to look like some heavy duty palm greasing going on.

Xheralt Delencradier said...

Does Houston have a place to put a Shuttle? Does it have well-developed "space tourist" industry and attractions the way the Kennedy Center does? I suspect (having *not* been a fly on the wall I cannot of course say with any actual certainty) that the shuttles will be more visible and garner more *future* interest in spaceflight where they will be going, and that was a large part of the decision criteria. With the fleet being down by two vehicles, not all places that "deserve" vehicles are going to get them, something had to give. Houstonians (and their supporters) need to swallow their scorched egos and accept the decision. The only "childish" behavior being seen right now is in this comment thread.

Beam Me Up said...

I agree that there are some hurt feelings and certainly some ruffled feathers in this subject. I love the fact that there are still strong feelings associated with space.

I do want to remind anyone that is posting comments that is is a privilege and not a right. Flames and dissing will not be tolerated.

Horacio said...

Xerheralt, you obviously have never been to Houston. Where to put the shuttle? Well how about right by the Saturn V we used to get to the moon, at Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake. We are called "Space City" for a reason since the 60's. Astronauts train and live here with us. If it weren't for Houston and Mission Control we wouldn't be having this conversation. Nor would the nation have such a successful space program. You can keep the shuttle New York, I'm sure Trump will open up a Casino with it or put it on one of his golf courses so the cronies that forced this decision can look at it while they shoot a 18 hole round with their buddies.