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I agree, the three states that deserved it most, were California, Florida, and Texas, in that order.

Texas should have received the one which was given to New York.

This was a big time slap in the face to Texas.

BTW, the first words from the lunar surface were not, "Houston."

It was "Contact light" by Aldrin. A few seconds later Armstrong said "Shutdown" and the engine was turned off.

The first word is still Houston to the public and always will be, and rightfully so, for instance no one is interested if he muttered something under his breath to himself out of habit, such as cool, or alright.

“We sought clarity from Bill Barry, NASA’s chief historian.

No luck: Barry told us that there are “a range of right answers.” He said “contact light” was one possibility because those words were uttered the moment that the module touched the surface of the moon.

“The next option,” he said, is the first word spoken after all four of the module’s foot pads came to rest on the moon. It’s not clear exactly when that happened, Barry said, but it probably occurred as the astronauts were running down their post-shutdown “checklist” — “like the one you do every day, but probably don’t say aloud, when you park your car.”

But Barry said that because the checklist was part of a long-rehearsed procedural script, he is “inclined toward saying that the first ‘intentional’ words spoken on the moon were Armstrong’s report to Houston that they had landed.”

Texas should have received the one which was given to New York.

There were three surviving "flown" shuttles: Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. There was also Enterprise, which was structurally a shuttle (twin of Columbia) but was never converted to spaceflight capability following her use in drop tests and fit checks. Enterprise had been in the care of the Smithsonian since 1985 or so, she was the one that went up to NYC.

The Smithsonian clearly rated a shuttle; NASM by law has right of first refusal on all retired NASA hardware. So it's appropriate not only that she get a shuttle, but also get Discovery, the first amongst equals of the shuttles in terms of historic value and the one being kept as the "shuttle of record"; closest to flight-configuration (Atlantis and Endeavour are getting stripped).

KSC clearly rated a shuttle, for the obvious reasons. They're getting to keep Atlantis.

There were four other really good contenders for the remaining shuttles: LA (proximity to Edwards Air Force Base and Palmdale, where they were built), Houston (NASA Mission Control), the USAF Museum ind Dayton OH (the Shuttle started as a joint NASA/USAF effort, and the Shuttles flew a good number of classified military/NRO missions early in the program) and Evergreen in Oregon (Evergreen subcontracted to NASA for the SCAs).

Enterprise should have gone to LA, due to her being the first shuttle built (at Palmdale) and the ALT drops. Or to Evergreen where she could have been displayed atop one of the SCAs.

Atlantis should have gone to Dayton, due to her being the shuttle that flew the most DoD/NRO missions.

Endeavour should have been the one that stayed at KSC.

I have no issue with Houston's contention for a shuttle. Had one (not Enterprise tho, since she never flew and therefore had no real connection to Houston) gone there instead of Dayton or the West Coast it would have been ok with me.

The problem is that one went to NYC, and did so after NASA violated several it's own guidelines in awarding the shuttles. The Intrepid Museum, which I happen to be a big fan of, met neither the financial requirements OR the facilities requirements that NASA laid out in it's original RFP (and, apparently Houston and LA didn't meet them either ... but I digress). But Chuck Schumer wanted a shuttle (note that his office put out a press release on NYC getting Enterprise about an hour before the official announcement was made) ...

It was "Contact light" by Aldrin. A few seconds later Armstrong said "Shutdown" and the engine was turned off.

The contact light came on before touchdown. There were "feelers" hanging from the legs and these indicated sufficient proximity to the surface to shut down the engine. After "Contact light," there was a slight pause and Armstrong read the landing check list, starting with "OK, engine stop," then continuing, "Modes control both auto, descent engine command overide off, engine arm off, 413 is in." 413 was a code entered into the computer to tell it they were down.

So, I always say "OK" was the first word spoken from the surface of the moon, that is mechanically supported by it. This checklist is almost always elided when the landing is replayed, even in NASA material. Norman Mailer spelled it out in his book, OF A FIRE ON THE MOON, which is where I first knew of it, and it was on a National Geographic 45 rpm record inserted in a special issue of the magazine a year or so after the event. I still have that. I'm sure it only has so many plays in it, so I guess I should put it on my Ipod, or something.