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Dayton
Daily News...
No shuttle for Dayton
By John Nolan and Jack Torry
Region’s bid came in fifth out of 21 Air Force museum gets space
artifacts
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
NASA’s decision Tuesday not to donate a space shuttle to the National
Museum of the U.S. Air Force angered members of Ohio’s congressional
delegation, who called for a federal investigation.
They urged the U.S. Government Accountability Office to review NASA’s
selection process that left out other sites in the country’s interior,
including Chicago, Tulsa and Houston.
Four of the 21 competing sites received shuttles. Three of the sites
are on the East Coast, and one is on the West Coast. NASA ranked the
Air Force museum fifth among its top sites, said U.S. Rep. Steve
Austria, R-Beavercreek.
Austria said NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. told him the
museum met all of NASA’s stated key criteria for permanent display of
an orbiter, including science and education programs, accessibility,
display plans and climate-controlled location for housing and
displaying the spacecraft.
But, in the end, New York City; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and
Florida’s Space Coast won out, with their population bases and tourist
drawing power. Bolden overlooked the Air Force museum even though it
already draws 1.3 million visitors a year.
The Air Force museum is also within a day’s drive of 60 percent of the
U.S. population, museum supporters said.
Bolden, a former shuttle pilot and commander, said the Kennedy Space
Center’s Visitor Complex in Florida will receive the orbiter Atlantis;
the California Science Center in Los Angeles will receive the orbiter
Endeavour; the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum
in Washington, D.C., will receive the orbiter Discovery; and the
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City will get the
Enterprise, which was used for testing and never flew in space.
Austria, whose congressional district includes part of Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base where the Air Force museum is located, said NASA’s
administrator told him the agency selected the Florida, Washington, New
York and Los Angeles sites because they provide ready international
access to visitors.
Austria, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and others said Bolden’s
decision slighted the Midwest and the Air Force, which was an early
partner of NASA’s in designing and developing the space shuttle and
contributed $8 billion to its development.
“New York and L.A. don’t make a lot of sense. They didn’t make
contributions to the program,” said Turner, referring to the shuttle
program. “No one in the Midwest is going to have a shuttle.
“We’ll never be New York; we’ll never be Los Angeles. But we’ll always
be home to the Wright brothers, to all things aerospace,” Turner said.
NASA declined to award an orbiter to Chicago, the nation’s
third-largest city, where Adler Planetarium had requested an orbiter,
and Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city.
Bob Mitchell, a Houston business community leader who had advocated
strongly for allocation of an orbiter to his city, said Congress should
investigate NASA’s site selection process.
Olga Dominguez, an assistant NASA administrator for strategic
infrastructure, told reporters Tuesday that Bolden followed her
office’s recommendations for allocating the orbiters.
“NASA took very seriously its mission to find the best locations for
display of these engineering and education marvels. ... We just did not
have enough to go around,” Dominguez said. “The locations were
recommended based on the best value to the American taxpayers,
including education and outreach, as well as domestic and international
access.”
Supporters of the Air Force museum said it already has robust programs
to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics teaching
for students and young visitors.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, led the call for an investigation by
the GAO, the investigative and auditing arm of Congress.
“NASA ignored the intent of Congress and the interests of taxpayers.
NASA was directed to consider regional diversity when determining
shuttle locations,” Brown said. “Unfortunately, it looks like regional
diversity amounts to which coast you are on, or which exit you use on
I-95. Even more insulting to taxpayers is that having paid to build the
shuttles, they will now be charged to see them at some sites.”
Congress has the right to explore and better understand NASA’s process,
Dominguez said.
Although the Air Force museum did not get a shuttle, it will get
artifacts including a shuttle’s main engine, a crew compartment
simulator, thruster and orbiter tires, museum director Jack Hudson
said. Other sites will receive shuttle equipment and artifacts as well,
Bolden said.
“We respect the decision and wish the winners the best,” Hudson said.
The museum still plans to construct a fourth building that is to open
in 2014 and house a Space Gallery, Presidential Gallery and Global
Reach Gallery, Hudson said. The Air Force Museum Foundation has raised
about $20 million toward that project’s $47 million cost, museum
spokesman Rob Bardua said Tuesday.
Two shuttle flights, of the Endeavour and Atlantis, remain before the
program officially ends this summer.
Discovery made its last flight in March.
NASA is now cleaning up Discovery for its eventual display.
The space agency has said it doesn’t expect to be ready to transfer the
orbiters to their new homes until next year.
Read it at the Dayton Daily News
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