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, the space
agency’s administrator Charles Bolden said on April 13. Bolden announced
the facilities where four shuttle orbiters will be displayed
permanently at the conclusion of the space shuttle program: the
Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
in Virginia, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City,
the California Science Center in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Space
Center Visitor’s Complex in Florida.
Shuttle Enterprise, the first orbiter built, will move from the
Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to its new location in New York, while
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. Shuttle
Atlantis, which will fly the last planned shuttle mission in June, will
be displayed at the Kennedy visitor’s center.
"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 are planned to be delivered to the Adler Planetarium in
Chicago, the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum of McMinnville,
Ore., and Texas A&M's Aerospace Engineering Department. A full
fuselage trainer will find a home at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, a
nose cap assembly and crew compartment trainer will wind up at the
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base in Ohio.
In addition, flight deck pilot and commander seats will go to NASA's
Johnson Space Center in Houston, while orbital maneuvering system
engines are to be put on display at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center of
Huntsville, Ala., National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum.
NASA's space shuttle fleet began setting records with its first
launch on April 12, 1981. Starting with Columbia and continuing with
Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, the spacecraft has
carried people into orbit repeatedly, launched, recovered and repaired
satellites, conducted cutting-edge research and built the largest
structure in space, the International Space Station. April 12 marked the
30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch.
The loss of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia were the two
highest-profile accidents in NASA’s history. This year marks the 25th
anniversary of the Challenger disaster: The spacecraft disintegrated
shortly after launch when a booster engine failed. The accident claimed
the lives of all crewmembers, including Christa McAuliffe, the first
candidate for NASA's Teacher in Space program.
The seven-member crew of Columbia was just 16 minutes from landing
on the morning of Feb. 1, 2003, when Mission Control lost contact with
the shuttle. A piece of foam falling from the external tank during
launch, which opened up a hole in one of the shuttle's wings, was
determined to be the cause of the accident.
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