When it comes to NASA, Congressional squabbling over funding for existing and new programs may just be the warm-up act. Battles are brewing for where the retiring space shuttles should be located.
NASA has three operational ships, plus a prototype named Enterprise, which currently resides at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The Smithsonian has dibs on Discovery, which is being prepared for its final flight next week. Presumably, it would give up Enterprise to another museum.
SLIDE SHOW: For Space Shuttle Atlantis, The End Is Here
NASA’s field centers in Florida and Houston, which have flown and overseen the shuttle program for the past 30 years, want orbiters for their visitor centers. Another strong candidate is New York City’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which draws more than 915,000 visitors each year and is home to a Concorde supersonic jet.
This week, Ohio upped the ante, with a request in the Obama Administration’s proposed 2012 budget for $14 million to ship shuttle Atlantis to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. The request was part of the Air Force’s budget.
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, located outside of Dayton, Ohio, already has a $5 million commitment from Boeing for a planned expansion.
"This request in the president's budget is a recognition of the integral role Dayton has played in the history of flight," U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, a former mayor of Dayton, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "From the Wright Brothers' test flights at Huffman Prairie to today's work by the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson, the roots of what made the space shuttle possible can be traced to Ohio.”
Twenty-eight other contenders are wooing NASA as well. The final decision rests with NASA’s chief, Charlie Bolden, a retired U.S. Marine corps general and four-time shuttle astronaut. Bolden said he’ll make the call this spring.
Image: Shuttle Atlantis, which flew more military missions than any of its sister ships, has caught the eye of the Air Force, which wants to build the shuttle a retirement home outside Dayton Ohio. Credit: NASA
Tags: Current Events, NASA, Space Shuttle
comments ( )