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After
30 years of spaceflight, more than 130 missions, and numerous science
and technology firsts, NASA’s space shuttle fleet will retire and be on
display at institutions across the country to inspire the next
generation of explorers and engineers.
NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday announced the facilities where
four shuttle orbiters will be displayed permanently at the conclusion of
the Space Shuttle Program. Shuttle Enterprise, the first orbiter built,
will move 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. The Udvar-Hazy Center will become the new home for
shuttle Discovery, which retired after completing its 39th mission in
March. Shuttle 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.
“We
want to thank all of the locations that expressed an interest in one of
these national treasures,” Bolden said. “This was a very difficult
decision, but one that was made with the American public in mind. In the
end, these choices provide the greatest number of people with the best
opportunity to share in the history and accomplishments of NASA’s
remarkable Space Shuttle Program. These facilities we’ve chosen have a
noteworthy legacy of preserving space artifacts and providing
outstanding access to U.S. and international visitors.”
NASA also announced that hundreds of shuttle artifacts have been allocated to museums and education institutions:
- Various
shuttle simulators for the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, the Evergreen
Aviation & Space Museum of McMinnville, Ore., and Texas A&M’s
Aerospace Engineering Department - Full fuselage trainer for the Museum of Flight in Seattle
- Nose
cap assembly and crew compartment trainer for the National Museum of
the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio - Flight deck pilot and commander seats for NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
- Orbital
maneuvering system engines for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center of
Huntsville, Ala., National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
For more information about other shuttle program artifacts that are
available to museums and libraries, visit:
http://gsaxcess.gov/htm/nasa/userguide/NASA_SSPA_Pamphlet.pdf
NASA
also is offering shuttle heat shield tiles to schools and universities
that want to share technology and a piece of space history with their
students. Schools can request a tile at: http://gsaxcess.gov/NASAWel.htm
For a map of the future locations for the orbiters and shuttle
artifacts and for more information on visiting the facilities, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/shuttle_station/features/shuttle_map.html
For more information about NASA’s placement of the space shuttle
orbiters, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/transition
