continuing coverage space shuttle

NASA decision due today on who gets space shuttles

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 9:09 AM Tuesday, April 12, 2011

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and 20 other sites competing for space shuttles find out from NASA today who has been chosen.

It will end a vigorous and highly unusual public competition between museums and visitor centers, at NASA locations and elsewhere around the nation, for the right to be assigned one of the U.S. space program’s workhorses for permanent display.

The announcement is expected during a conference at 1 p.m.

Space shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis are to make one more flight apiece this year before the 30-year-old program ends and NASA officially retires the orbiters, which literally took space flight to a new level and made possible the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station deployments.

The orbiter Discovery and the Enterprise, which was flown in the atmosphere as a glider during tests but was never operated in outer space, are also available for assignment.

NASA asked the competing sites to tell the agency how they would display an orbiter, how they would make it available to the largest possible flow of visitors, how they would include it in science education programs to inspire young people for technology careers, and whether they have a climate-controlled location.

Also at stake for the museums, beyond prestige, is the orbiter’s potential to boost attendance.

Backers of the Air Force museum have said they hope that, if the museum is awarded an orbiter, attendance could jump from the current 1.3 million annually to more than 2 million.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.