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 ...
Living in Louisiana, I find that perfectly believeable. Down here, you can frequently identify voting district boundaries by where the blacktop abruptly turns into dirt road. Dead serious :-)
The Kennedy Space Center isn't in Florida?
Locals call it the Cape (for Cape Canaveral). the politicos tried to rename it Cape Kennedy, but failed.
Houston was taken off the list after Sheila Jackson-Lee was promised the flag from Mars.
Yeah, make a deal to have all your teeth pulled without novacaine.
Make a deal to have your firstborn burned alive.
Make a deal to drink Drano, topped off with a pint of battery acid.
Make a deal to have your toenails trimmed with a lawnmower.
I think we've had enough of your deals. And definitely Obummer's gonna find out that what goes around comes around. Personally I'll take every opportunity to give the man what he deserves.
It's a pun, a take off on the Pecante Salsa commercial where the TX cattle trail riders heard the salsa they were being fed was made in New York City.
"New York City?!"
"Get a rope!"
;D! The irony.
Dang I wish y’all were my neighbors!
Thank you so much for addressing the “making a deal” bs.
[ Shouldnt they send one to Mecca? After all the muslims have made major contributions to out space effort... like...
ummm....
well....
Ok, but NASAs mission is to make the jihadis feel better about themselves, right? So Mecca it is. ]
In a display of Moose-limb understanding the black heat tiles on the belly of the shuttle will be pried off and sold to Moose-limbs as “Black Kaaba” Replica stones.....
I agree the one set for LA should’ve went to Houston and the one for NYC to Wright Patterson.
“Barry hates Texas!
Texas hates Barry more!”
I would like to see a concerted effort to let Stroker KNOW that we truly hate his guts and that we don’t give a flying f**k about what he thinks of us.
Go To Hell, Stroker!
Kennedy makes sense, that's where they've all launched.
CA makes sense, it's where all were built and many missions ended.
Smithsonian makes sense, that's our "national museum."
But NY? Why there? TX had a stronger case.
Had they survived there would never have been an Endevour. They should have skipped New York and given one to Wright-Pat. Without Air Force funding and DoD missions the thing would have never been built.
Why? ALL shuttles were built in Palmdale, CA, north of L.A. Many missions ended at Edwards AFB in California.
True enough. And while I'm no apologist for NYC (or defender of this particular decision), one has to acknowledge that more folks will probably see it in NYC than would at Wright-Patterson. Also, the Intrepid did play an integral role in the Mercury and Gemini missions upon which the subsequent space program was built. I think the decision is a little more palatable when one thinks of it being awarded specifically to the Intrepid Museum, and not generally to NYC.
The only reason Houston had anything to do with the whole thing from the start was political pork. The old look how many jobs I got here, never mind they took the money from the tax payers. The government is just so much better at spending your money.
This morning in The Wall Street Journal (just before the announcement) Andy Pasztor wrote this (now the story line has changed):
“......Separately, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Tuesday is expected to pick museums in New York, Florida and Texas as recipients of three of the four shuttles slated for retirement by year end, according to people familiar with the matter.....”— WSJ April 12, 2011 12:08 P.M. ET
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