Shuttle Discovery retires with Washington flypast

1What would it be like to fly a space shuttle? Although the last of NASA's space shuttles has now been retired, it is still fun to contemplate sitting at the controls of one of the humanity's most sophisticated mashines. Pictured above is the flight deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour, the youngest shuttle and the second to last ever launched. The numerous panels and displays allowed the computer-controlled orbiter to enter the top of Earth's atmosphere at greater than the speed of sound and -- just thirty minutes later -- landon a runway like an airplane. The retired space shuttle are now being sent to museums, with Endeavour being sent to California Space Center in Los Angeles, California, Atlantis to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida, and Discovery to the Udvar-Hazy Annex of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. Therefore sitting in a shuttle pilot's chair and personally contemplating the thrill of human space flight may actually be in your future.


3Have you always wanted to see where the Astronauts work? Now’s your chance. No, it’s not outer space, but it is NASA’s Johnson Space Center! Go behind the scenes on the NASA Tram Tour and you will have the opportunity to get an up close look at real NASA facilities! Home of the Astronauts and Mission Control, NASA’s Johnson Space Center is sure to show you an out of this world experience. 

NASA administrator Charles Bolden announced today the four museums — the Smithsonian Institution (Discovery), the California Science Center (Endeavour), Kennedy Space Center (Atlantis) and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (Enterprise) — that will receive space shuttles for public display after the fleet retires this summer.

As expected Houston, the home of human spaceflight, was snubbed.

It’s a shame. Houston’s campaign, Bring the Shuttle Home, probably deserves some blame for being late to the game in terms of politicking for an orbiter.

But I’m not sure any campaign could have saved Houston. The politics of this decision were pretty clear. President Obama appoints the NASA administrator, and Texas is a decidedly Republican state.

“It is sad and unfortunate that politics played such an obvious role in the placement of theses retiring Orbiters,” said Texas Congressman John Culberson. “The thought of an Orbiter not coming home to rest at Space Center Houston is truly tragic. It is analogous to Detroit without a Model-T, or Florence without a da Vinci.”

Under the present leadership in the White House and Congress Texas has clearly lost some of its juice, noted Robert Stein, a political scientist at Rice University: “l don’t think we’re that powerful in Texas anymore. We don’t have the clout we once did.”

Texas used to do well even under politically divided government in Washington with representatives like Sens. John Tower and Lloyd Bentsen working together. “Right now that’s not happening. Many Republicans in the Texas delegation are ideologues and they can’t see anyway to make a deal. That hurts the state when it comes to decisions like this.”

Hope you caught Endeavour flying into Houston in 2008, as it probably won’t happen again.

NASA denied politics were involved in the decision.

“I have felt no political pressure at all during this process. I’m apolitical. I’m here to do what is best for NASA,” said Olga Dominguez, Assistant Administrator, Office of Strategic Infrastructure, who forwarded the recommended sites chosen to Charles Bolden.

The selection process was poorly conceived in the sense that NASA never clearly stated the criteria by which the orbiters would be parsed out. From some perspectives it seems ludicrous that Houston will not get one of the retiring birds.