Today marks the 50th anniversary of manned space flight and the 30th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle launch. Among other events, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. is just announcing which museums will receive each of the five retiring Space Shuttles.
The Pacific Northwest, with its abundance of aviation museums, has two strong contenders among the 21 in the competition.
The first is, of course, the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. I don’t need to say much about this, because if you have any interest in aviation, you’ve been there. (And if not, well…you’ve probably stopped reading.)
Another not-quite-so-well-known regional finalist is the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. This is the place where Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose is housed. If you like aviation museums, Evergreen is fantastic. In recent years, the museum has expanded to two main buildings, one for aviation, one for space. They are currently building a water park with an unusual water slide. Here’s a photo I recently took on a dreary March afternoon…
Bolden choked up a few times during his introductory speech. Here is the list of awardees:
- Discovery will go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
- Endeavor go to California Science Center.
- Atlantis, whose last flight is in June, will go to the Kennedy Space Center.
- Enterprise, the prototype that currently at the Smithsonian Institution, will go to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
Bummer.
So we were up against two museums that were guaranteed (Smithsonian, Kennedy), California and New York.
Hey Feds, fuck if we build you a plane to carry around your next spaceship, assholes.
Oh, and fuck you, New York and Calfornia. We’re sick of your asses.
that sucks….was looking forward to the shuttle going to Boeing’s Museum.
Yeah well, Tacoma gets to keep the Kalakala so FU Seattle.
What the fuck, while we’re telling people to go fuck themselves, wemight as well say “fuck everybody!”
There are countries where I’d be jailed, tortured, and shot for saying that! God I love America! Free speech and all that …
SAVE THE KALAKALA! SCUTTLE THE SHUTTLE!
Murray had no chance against Schumer and Feinstein.
Bummer on the space shuttle.
I’ve been to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, which is fantastic. Too bad, Evergreen Aviation’s some sort of creepy CIA subcontractor.
I actually think that we’re better off with a simulator that we can each get to “fly” than a shuttle that would just be something to look at.
@6
The Kalakala looks well beyond saving.
#7 Nailed it.
I guess we will have to be content with the current offerings at the Museum of Flight (Boeing Field – Seattle), the Experience Flight Center (Paine Field-Mukilteo), Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection (Paine Field – Everett), the Historic Flight Museum (Paine Field-Mukilteo), etc.
Is that Russian shuttle still around somewhere? The Museum of Flight could buy that, restore it and put it on display.
The waterslide at Evergreen Aviation Museum will be really quite something (It’s supposed to open in June). Four slides emanate from four emergency doorways in the 747 that is on the roof, and curl down into the museum building, a drop of about 60′. And each one is different and a different color. One is called “The Toilet Bowl” because of the way it swooshes and swirls down. Jump out the door and into the waterslide. What a concept for fun!
The simulator does seem to be the better deal. They wouldn’t allow anybody inside the shuttle, so what’s the point?