Posted on 04/12/2011 11:47:57 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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."
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.chron.com ...
After visiting Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (Enterprise) last year, I knew that venue would get one of the shuttles... it is well worth the price of admission... very high profile location in the Big Apple too.
Barry hates Texas!
The space shuttle should be homed in a city with a high muslim population and turned into mosque.
It’s the only way to keep Obama happy.
Yes,the shuttle is very impressive.
so wrong that two go to the Northeast and one to California. None in FL, Houston, or the Wright Pat museum in OH.
I would have done one in DC for sure, and then two in some combination of CA, FL, and TX, depending on other factors. The damn things have been central to FL tourism and TX tourism for three decades. NY had nothing to do with it, and frankly doesn’t add anything to the tourist visits. There are a billion other things that attract tourists there. I see the value of one of the west coast because they did land there, and it would be accessible to regional tourists.
Shouldn’t they send one to Mecca? After all the muslims have made major contributions to out space effort... like...
ummm....
well....
Ok, but NASA’s mission is to make the jihadis feel better about themselves, right? So Mecca it is.
I can’t say that the selections are particularly poor; they seem kind of logical. It’s just disgusting that politics even figured in the calculation at all. Had Challenger and Columbia survived the length of the program, I’d have like to have seen one each allocated to Houston and Wright-Patterson.
Sorry. New York does not deserve a space shuttle.
Barry just wanted to screw Texas. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole Johnson Space Center gets shut down.
KSC got one.
Frankly, I’m surprised Riyadh didn’t get one.
And.....The Houston Comical LOVES Stroker!
Ping.
Yeah, I was pulling for Wright Pat., since i’s just right down the road....
Texas hates Barry more!
Were we expecting anything but politics from Obamao.
Kennedy did get one. Bolden made the announcement about “his” selections at KSC.
Now, I think Texans should just “steal” that one going to LA and dare them to come take it.
And as for NYC! Get a rope!
As they say, it is what it is, and this is blatant politics.
Childish and so very Barry.
They can’t take away the history or the great work the people in Houston and the JSC family did. We’d rather be Texans and conservative than progressives with a shuttle on the lawn.
The Intrepid is getting the prototype. I has no engine and it has never flown.
The word here in Ohio is that Dayton’s fate was sealed when the GOP swept every elective office here on November 2. Dead serious.
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