Want a shuttle? Prep and delivery cost is $28.8M

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By Tom Beyerlein , Staff Writer Updated 10:07 AM Tuesday, April 5, 2011

NASA didn’t have many requirements when it asked interested organizations to apply for a chance to get a space shuttle. Chief among them: Have a climate-controlled, indoor place to display it and guarantee you can come up with preparation and transportation costs totaling $28.8 million.

Initially, the space agency planned to charge $42 million to prepare and deliver a shuttle. But NASA officials agreed to take on the costs of “safing” the shuttles — removing toxic materials such as fuel from the orbiters.

But each shuttle recipient will still have to pay $20.5 million for “display preparation” and $8.3 million to ferry the orbiter to its final destination, according to NASA information provided by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office.

Display preparation involves reinstalling “safed” orbiter systems like engines or facsimiles of them, providing “special hazard notices and controls,” and preparing the shuttle to be ferried atop a modified Boeing 747. It doesn’t include the museum’s costs of providing a display environment.

Ferrying includes costs of the actual flight, offloading the shuttle from the 747 and moving it to its ultimate location.

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