NASA finally announced the final venues for their soon to be retired Space Shuttle Orbiters.
- Atlantis stays at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
- Endeavour goes to the California Science Center in Los Angeles
- Discovery will go to the Smithsonian in Virginia
- Enterprise will move from the Smithsonian to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York
Now there are a few issues with this list, but let’s just start from the beginning.
What makes sense
With Atlantis holding the honor of flying the final space shuttle mission, it makes a lot of sense for it to have a permanent home in Florida (assuming it actually lands there when it comes home). The Kennedy Space Center is the launch site for the entire space program, so it just makes sense that they would receive one of the shuttles. I don’t think anyone can argue this one.
NASA has also awarded Endeavour to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Some may question this move, but you have to remember that the shuttles were manufactured in California in the 1970s. In true honor, construction of a new expansion for the museum was already underway, and will not be used to permanently display the shuttle indoors. It’s a fitting place, and I’m glad to the West Coast gain a shuttle.
What makes less sense
Currently, Enterprise resides at the Smithsonian in Virginia where it has been for the last 30 years. It will relocate, and instead, Discovery will take it’s place. I’m not sure why NASA saw fit to take an established display and move things all around. I suppose NASA wanted to place a shuttle that actually went into space in the museum. That’s the only reason I can think of right now, but overall it’s a strange decision.
What makes no sense at all
Related to the above, the Enterprise will now move to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York. To me, this is one of the most crazy ideas I can imagine, and makes absolutely no sense. To place one of our 4 shuttles out in New York is a huge injustice to all the other venues that have been campaigning for a piece of history. Not only does New York have nearly no history in terms of the NASA program in general, New York marks three East Coast venues with only one West Coast venue and no venues in the Central States.
How could Seattle, Washington home of Boeing, the biggest design contributor to the Space Shuttle, not receive a Shuttle? How could they not choose Dayton, Ohio, home of the National Air Force Museum, which is accessible by huge portion of the American population via their central location? How could Houston, Texas, home of NASA Mission Control itself, be completely snubbed? Any one of these venues would have been preferred to having a third shuttle on the East Coast.
Not only do we have an obvious imbalance of locations for the fleet, we have to consider what are the venue requirements of an open air museum in New York? I’m not sure I would want to subject such an iconic piece of human history out in the docks of a New York winter.
There is a lot of anger amongst the states not chosen for a shuttle. While I do not wish to convey any slight to Washington or Ohio, I fully believe that the biggest slap in the face is to not award the Johnson Space Center in Houston a shuttle. This is not coming from a stance of being a native Texan and especially not of a Houston native as I personally can’t stand the city. This is coming from a logical view of where the Space Shuttles should reside.
While we can reason for all the sites, the New York site makes the least sense. As Sen Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) stated, “It is unthinkable that the home of human space flight would not represent the ideal home for a retired orbiter.” I completely agree with the calls that this move is pure politics at it’s worst.
NASA Administrator Bolden suggested that the selected venues would provide the greatest number of people access to the shuttles, which is an insane assertion. I would love to view the population studies that would suggest more visitors would be able to view the shuttles via having them located in both New York and Virginia as opposed to Virginia plus Ohio or Texas. Dayton, Ohio is a day’s travel from 60% of the population.
(via Nasa/Wikipeida )
What I would have done
While I am no expert in population studies, I would applied a little bit of logic and fairness to my placement of the Shuttles.
First off, having a shuttle in California is a must to serve the West Coast. With their creation there and huge population centers in California, it makes the most sense to be in Los Angeles. Considering they built Endeavour after the Challenger, it makes a fitting home for that shuttle.
I would not move the Enterprise out of it’s home at the Smithsonian to replace it with another shuttle. Why would you spend thousands of dollars to move the shuttle when it has had a perfectly good home for 30 years and replace it with another one?
Florida already has the facilities to display a shuttle and is a good logical choice for a shuttle. Atlantis being the last shuttle in use makes it a logical candidate for staying in Florida after it’s last mission. It could simply go into it’s post flight hangar and just stay there after it’s final post flight checks are completed.
Discovery should not be moved into the Smithsonian and put out the Enterprise. Rather, I think it should be moved to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. One could argue that the Dayton National Air Force Museum would be more accessible by more Americans and they would be correct, but Houston is the home of the space program. In the very least, I would have rather seen Dayton receive a shuttle as opposed to New York.
There is also a lot of fears of an admission charge by some venues, despite the fact that the entire program is taxpayer funded. The California Science Center has already committed to having no admission charge, but the same cannot be said by the other venues.
Slap in the Face
Overall, it’s a huge injustice to overlook Texas and Ohio as venues for the space shuttle. While Bolden may scream that there was absolutely no politics involved in the decision making, as an avid space enthusiast for my entire life, it’s hard for me to see how personal and political favors did not play into the decision making. And even if it was a purely scientific ruling, and does truly provide for the biggest group of visitors, it surely doesn’t feel fair to those of us who live in the center regions of the country.