Final Offers for the Retired Space Shuttles Made

With Discovery having already flown its last mission, and Endeavor about to take off on its last spaceflight ever too, excitement is growing among museums ahead of a planned announcement that would finally reveal where the shuttles will be displayed. The last offers are now pouring in.

Museums are competing against each other in this race. They need to provide the American space agency with the best possible scenarios depicting how they will take care of, and display, the orbiter they would get.

As such, each of those interested in acquiring one of the space shuttles needs to send detailed plans of the rooms, halls or hangars where the massive spacecraft would be kept, how the surrounding area will look like, how many people will have access to it and so on.

At this point, just two weeks before NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announces where the final resting places of the four space shuttles would be, all museums are making their final proposals.

NASA needs to find homes for Discovery, Endeavor, Atlantis and Enterprise. The latter is already on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, in Washington DC.

Bolden told Congress last month that he already put a team together, whose job is to investigate all of the museums that have put forth bids to house one of the shuttles. At this point, the “investigation” is in full swing, and it will most likely conclude by mid-April, when a final decision will be made.

“I have asked that team to bring that to a head […] so that I can announce a decision on the 30th anniversary of the flight of STS-1, Columbia, [on] April 12th,” the NASA Administrator told the House of Representatives' Committee on Appropriations, Space reports.

Lobbying has already began at various locations around the country. Astronauts, congressmen and other prominent figures that have been connected with the space shuttle program over its 27 years of operations are already beginning to root for their respective states.

Officials in states such as Florida, Texas and California, states that played a pivotal role in the shuttle program, are also rooting to get a space shuttle. The Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, which was home of the shuttles for nearly three decades, also wants one of the spacecraft.

Currently, there are 29 museums and organizations that have expressed an interest in acquiring one of the four shuttles up for grabs. The KSC and the Johnson Space Center in Houston are both making their cases directly to President Obama, reminding him of their significance in the program.

As for Discovery, the shuttle will most likely be sent to the Smithsonian, in Washington. The museum already houses Enterprise, but was promised Discovery since 2008. Managers said that they will make Enterprise available for another museum, while replacing it with an orbiter that actually flew to space.