No Shuttle for the Brazos Valley

Updated: Tue 4:33 PM, Apr 12, 2011

Known Organizations in the Running for Space Shuttles

Adler Planetarium, Chicago, Illinois
Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History, Bryan, Texas
California Science Center, Los Angeles, California
Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon
Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, New York, New York
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Cape Canaveral, Florida
March Field Air Museum, Riverside, California
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton, Ohio
Palmdale Plant 42, Palmdale, California
San Diego Air and Space Museum, San Diego, California
Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia
Space Center Houston, Houston, Texas
The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington
Tulsa Air and Space Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma
U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama

*Update* 12:37pm

New York City will be the new home of space shuttle Enterprise, the prototype shuttle used for test flights more than three decades ago.

Enterprise will go to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
NASA plans to send shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian once the shuttle program ends this summer.

The space agency also announced Tuesday the new homes of the two other shuttles, Atlantis and Endeavour.

The Kennedy Space Center will house Atlantis.
Endeavour will stay in Los Angeles and call the California Science Center home.

Twenty-one museums and centers around the country put in bids
for the spaceships. The announcement comes on the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle flight.

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More than 20 organizations, including one in the Brazos Valley, are in the running to land one of the retiring space shuttles. NASA will announce the recipients Tuesday at noon.

KBTX will have live coverage of the big reveals during News 3 at Noon. The event will also stream live at KBTX.com.

The Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History is one of 15 known entities vying for one of four orbiters. The space shuttle program is slated to end this year.

Currently, the Enterprise is housed at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum annex in northern Virginia. However, the prototype shuttle that never went into space but was used for flight tests will be replaced in the annex by Space Shuttle Discovery.

That leaves Enterprise, Atlantis and Endeavour to find homes. Of the 21 organizations reportedly in the running, 15 have been made public according to Space.com.

Tuesday's event is both to announce the shuttles' new homes, but also to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first shuttle mission. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will reveal the winners.

The Brazos Valley bid has touted its proximity to the major metropolitan areas -- Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin -- as a selling point. Texas A&M's focus on engineering and contributions to NASA projects has also been a talking point for the local effort.

Former President George H.W. Bush has publicly endorsed the natural history museum's bid. If they win the right to house a shuttle, it would go across from the president's library and museum on the A&M campus.

A new structure would have to be built to hold a shuttle, and according to Space.com. Some location to accommodate the shuttle would have to be ready as early as December of this year. The cost of the transport of the orbiter (by Boeing 747) and the display of it comes in at an estimated $28.8 million.

Do you agree with NASA's decision to not give Texas a shuttle?

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