Homes For Space Shuttles

by **Kerberos** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:13 pm

With the end of the Shuttle Era presumably near, does anyone know where the retired orbiters will be put on display?

by **MeteorWayne** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:18 pm

One will certainly wind up at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum....

by **newsartist** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:21 pm

MeteorWayne wrote:One will certainly wind up at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum....

They are too fragile for outdoor display,

I would suggest placing one in the Smithsonian, and shifting Enterprise to Edwards AFB/DFRC, where it actually made history.

I suspect that the other two will go to whoever comes up with the funding to erect a display building first?

Any temporary housing would require that NASA retain at least one of the SCA 747s, for transfer to a final site. I'm not sure if that is budgeted.

by **drwayne** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:38 am

They had a boilerplate model outdoors in Huntsville for years, so I suspect that they will not put up the
$ for setting up an indoor display, but I could be wrong.

by **Testing** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:03 am

Perhaps one will end up at Dayton, OH. They have a pretty fine collection.

by **drwayne** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 8:56 am

One of my disappointments is that I have not had a chance to go there yet.

by **Kerberos** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 9:27 pm

I love Dayton, even if it is the Air Force.

by **drwayne** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:21 pm

I believe the word is pronounced

Air Farce

by **Kerberos** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:34 pm

hehehe

I love picking on my buddies in the AF. All in good fun, of course.

by **drwayne** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:03 am

Of course,, a coworker had a good zinger for the Navy folks:

"There's a reason the put those folks on boats and send them way the heck out on the water"

by **Kerberos** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:13 pm

hehe

The non flight-rated guys use to hate it when we referred to the carrier as a boat.

by **jim48** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 12:28 am

Okay. To save time let us forget, as in Just-Put-It-Out-Of-Your-Alleged-Mind that I am the only real, genuine, bonafide, honest-to-God scientist here at SDC. Y'all just imagined that!!! And of course forget that I live in Florida!!! I'm thinking the Kennedy Space Center, hmm? Just a thought.

by **hewes** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 9:41 pm

Home for the Orbiters is CALIFORNIA.

by **jim48** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:13 am

hewes wrote:Home for the Orbiters is CALIFORNIA.

FLORIDA.

by **hewes** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:03 pm

Eat our rocket dust. C A L I F O R N I A.

by **kiwigavin** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:20 pm

They are too fragile for outdoor display

..and don't that sum up the whole last 30-year-long dead end...

by **jim48** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 2:20 am

hewes wrote:Eat our rocket dust. C A L I F O R N I A.

One for California. One for Florida. Problem solved. Peace.

by **ZenGalacticore** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 3:59 pm

I'm going to make a small diner out of Atlantis and serve chili dogs out of it at Kennedy, near the National Seashore.

NewsArtist- Too fragile to be outside? I think you meant too precious, right?

Oh wait. Better idea. Turn two of them each into men and women's public restrooms to represent how Americans crap on their space program. Yeah, pee on it you ungrateful, complacent, spoiled, indifferent, apathetic bastards!

by **tanstaafl76** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:46 pm

Preferably somewhere with a nice climate that doesn't experience foam storms.

by **CalliArcale** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:45 pm

Kerberos wrote:hehe

The non flight-rated guys use to hate it when we referred to the carrier as a boat.

I've seen boats that are about as long as a carrier. Lakers (mostly ore carriers), though ginormous, are traditionally referred to as "boats" because their size confines them to the Great Lakes. Too big to pass through the Seaway. The SS Paul Tregurtha is longer than a Nimitz-class carrier. (By the same token, supercarriers cannot pass *into* the Great Lakes. Anything over 740 ft is right out.) Ironically, these big lakers are on the way out; with the American automotive industry foundering, more of the taconite from northern MN is now going overseas, which means more salties have to come in.

So, boat. Nyaaah.

Oh, and what to do with the Orbiters? Definitely should go in proper indoor museum storage. Just like any other aircraft that we really really really care about. I mean, outdoor exhibits are cool, but they do take a beating from the elements. Even regular stuff like P-51s suffer.

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