William Atkins
Thursday, 18 December 2008 19:40
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
Do you know of a good location to publicly display one of the space shuttle orbiters or one of their main engines? NASA is looking for a few good places after the Space Transportation System (STS) program ends.
The
STS program, commonly called the
space shuttle program was first
thought about by the U.S. government in the late 1960s.
The program was launched on January 5,
1972, to develop a reusable space shuttle system. The first operational
space shuttle,
Columbia, was launched on April 12, 1981 from the
Kennedy Space Center.
The NASA article “
NASA solicits ideas for displaying retired space shuttles and main engines” states that it
“… has issued a Request for Information, or RFI, seeking ideas from educational institutions, science museums and other appropriate organizations about the community's ability to acquire and publicly display the space shuttle orbiters and space shuttle main engines after the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program.”
NASA, through its Office of Infrastructure, is looking for input from organizations whose missions are education or educational outreach related and whose experiences lie in the public display of national space hardware and historical artifacts.
Through such input, NASA hopes to develop strategies for the placement of two of its three operational space shuttle orbiters and at least six unassembled main display “kits.”
NASA states that its
“… primary goal of this effort is to collect a wide variety of perspectives about whether eligible recipient organizations are capable of appropriately displaying the shuttle orbiters and main engines, and bearing the full cost of preparing the hardware for display and transportation to its final destination.”
Learn where to make inputs for places to retire the space shuttles on page two.
