NASA's shuttle program legacy honored with poster, patches as Discovery, Endeavour, Atlantis are retired. Image credit/NASA
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and his staff acted properly and without political influence in their choice of U. S.venues for the display of the retired space shuttle orbiters, Discovery, Endeavour, Atlantis and the test glider Enterprise, the agency’s inspector general concluded in an Aug. 25 special report.
The venues announced by Bolden on April 12 proved controversial, particularly in Houston, home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the astronaut corps and Mission Control; and Dayton, Ohio, the site of the National Museum of the U. S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The Air Force served as a liaison to NASA for the launch of national security payloads aboard the shuttle orbiters.
“In summary, we found that NASA’s decisions regarding the orbiter placement were the result of an agency-created process that emphasized above all other considerations locating the orbiters in places where the most people would have the opportunity to view them. The agency was not required to and did not consider a location’s ties to the space shuttle program but, as directed by the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, considered whether the chosen locations had a connection to NASA’s human space flight program.” the 27-page IG report states. “We found no evidence that the Team’s recommendation or the Administrator’s decision was tainted by political influence or any other improper consideration.”
On April 12, Bolden, a former shuttle astronaut, announced the winning display venues while at the Kennedy Space Center.
* Discovery will go to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, D. C.
*Endeavour, to the California Science Center inLos Angeles, Calif.
*Atlantis to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. in Central Florida.
*Enterprise, long retired, will move from the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center to the Intrepid Sea, Air andSpace Museum inNew York City.
NASA Administrator announces the agency's choice of display venues for Discovery, Endeavour, Atlantis and Enterprise. Photo Credit/NASA
The report, entitled Review of NASA’s Selection of Display Locations for the Space Shuttle Orbiters, lodged one major difficulty with NASA’s selections. An internal selection panel that scored the merits of 29 display proposals made an error that would have elevated the Air Force Museum in Dayton to a tie with the Intrepid and Kennedy, the IG reported.
However, Bolden informed the IG’s auditors that had he been aware of the tie, he would not have changed his selections.
The IG also noted that NASA may have taken too long, more than two years, to announce the venue site selections. The report urges NASA to review the status of the winning venues in terms of their financial status and display strategy. The IG also urged NASA to pace the reimbursements it receives from the winning venues with the agency’s own milestones in preparing the orbiters for release.