Shuttles For Sale

Three orbiters in search of good homes. Not cheap.

  • By Guy Gugliotta
  • Air & Space magazine, March 2010
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Space Shuttle Enterprise Arival at UHC Space Shuttle Enterprise Arival at UHC on November 20, 2003 being moved into the Space Hangar

Dane Penland

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Space Shuttle Enterprise Arival at UHC

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(Page 3 of 3)

Dunbar says her museum is building an exhibit hall that could house the orbiter. As for the$42 million entry fee, “It is twice as much as the new building will cost, and quite a surprise,” she says. But she adds: “I think it’s all negotiable—and it should be.”

If so, Museum of Flight, with its larger market, might have an advantage over Evergreen, but Bailey remains undaunted. Evergreen built the new facility partly as a Field of Dreams impulse: If you build it, the shuttle will come. When it comes to exhibits, he says, “we don’t do penny-ante stuff.” Probably the right attitude.

Guy Gugliotta is a writer in Pelham, New York.

Want the ultimate space collectible? Consider a space shuttle. The orbiters have flown 29 years and have a few miles on them (tens of millions), but soon all three will be up for grabs.

Some time this year—right now it looks like September 30—NASA plans to shut down the program. For all the shuttle’s successes in missions like deploying satellites, fixing the Hubble Space Telescope, and building the International Space Station, flying it was always risky. Two orbiters were lost, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, killing 14 astronauts. Now NASA says it will donate the ones remaining— Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour—to whoever it feels can provide the best homes. In 2008, the agency issued a Request for Information, and21 institutions entered the competition. NASA won’t say when it will ask for formal proposals or identify the candidates, but some have declared themselves, apparently feeling that if you want a national treasure, you shouldn’t be shy about saying so.

NASA made it clear that contestants don’t win simply by raising their hands. Only U.S. museums and educational institutions are eligible. And the gift shuttles will not come with the three main engines, making them lighter and thus easier to transport. (NASA plans to give away six to 10 unassembled engine “kits” to suitable museums.)

Also, you have to display the orbiter indoors. NASA clearly wants to avoid a repeat of the Apollo program’s denouement, when the agency left its three remaining Saturn V rockets to decay outside for decades at its centers in Florida, Texas, and Alabama. These noble behemoths, once targets for pigeons, have since been restored but “certainly there was a lesson learned,” says Valerie Neal, shuttle curator at the National Air and Space Museum, which owns the rockets. Spacecraft are fine in a vacuum, she points out, “but they don’t do that well on Earth. Both NASA and the Museum were a little naïve.”

Most important, acquiring a shuttle orbiter is expensive. NASA is requiring the winners to come up with $28 million— just for shipping and handling. (Note: The figure was reduced from $42 million after our March issue went to press) Orbiters are122 feet long, weigh 151,000 pounds, and have 78-foot wingspans. Underbellies are padded with ceramic thermal tiles, which must remain intact. The spacecraft cannot be disassembled for transport.

The first $6 million of the fee will reimburse NASA for the Boeing 747 that will piggy back an orbiter to the airport of choice—as long as it’s one with a runway at least 8,000 feet long. NASA hopes to get all three piggy backs done by May 31, 2012. Everything after that is your problem, and the ante doesn’t cover any of it. You must get the orbiter to the facility you have built for it, clean it up, put it indoors, fix up the displays, train the guides, and set up the videos and other exhibit features.

The document warned that during the move NASA will not “remove light posts and traffic signals,” a point that caused the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center to drop out. There were suitable airports in Salina and Wichita, but to reach the Hutchinson museum, the orbiter would have had to travel 50miles over two-lane roads. “We didn’t want to destroy a highway,” says Marisa Honomichl, the Cosmosphere’s vice president of marketing and development.

NASA did not say what the $28 million buys you, but most of the money will be used to “safe” the orbiter: doing such things as covering naked wires, loose gadgets, and sharp edges, and draining it of toxic fluids.

There are several ways to raise $28 million quickly— a new tax, vanity license plates, a special appropriation. “We would welcome public funding,” says Stewart Bailey, curator of Oregon’s Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. But if that doesn’t come through, he says, “we won’t be holding a bake sale.”

The Evergreen museum is anon-profit owned by Evergreen International Aviation Inc., a conglomerate that specializes in air transport, air cargo, and ground infrastructure but that also owns vineyards, farmland, and pasture near its headquarters in McMinnville, about 35 miles from Portland.

Evergreen opened the museum in 1991 and now has more than 100 aircraft on display. Its prize attraction is Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, an airplane with a wingspan wider than the Airbus A380’s; it bought the flying boat from Disney in 1992. And it has a new 121,000-square-foot building just waiting for a tenant.

“We understand the challenges; they are very clear,” says Bailey. “The orbiter is big, it’s hard to move, and it’s expensive, but we wanted to be ready, and we are.”Evergreen barged the Goose to McMinnville, waiting for low tide to sneak the cargo under bridges. The same technique should work for the shuttle, but if not, the company will figure something out. Moving big stuff, Bailey notes, is what they do.

Also unworried is the National Air and Space Museum. Based on the RFI, the Museum is virtually guaranteed first pick, and Neal says it plans to request Discovery, the oldest of the three shuttles. The Museum will almost certainly make its shuttle on display, Enterprise, available to another museum. Now at the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Enterprise was a prototype, flown only in atmospheric drop tests, not in space.

Still, for some candidates, it’s not just about the money. New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, at the piers of downtown Manhattan, has in its favor location, a huge metro region, and legions of tourists. The museum would house the shuttle in a glass enclosure on the end of Pier 86 at 46th Street.

The museum “is uniquely positioned to be the recipient of one of these national treasures,” says Bill White, president of the foundation that operates it. Getting the money wouldn’t seem to be a problem; the Intrepid foundation raised $115 million for the recent overhaul of the carrier and its pier (see “Restoration: Cleaning a Carrier,” Aug./Sept.2008) and to cover two years’ operating costs. Now the Intrepid is raising more for a shuttle; officials won’t say how much.

On the other coast, Seattle’s Museum of Flight has Bonnie Dunbar, a former astronaut, as president and CEO, and is located in one of the cradles of American aviation. And the museum butts up against Boeing Field/King County International Airport.

Dunbar says her museum is building an exhibit hall that could house the orbiter. As for the$42 million entry fee, “It is twice as much as the new building will cost, and quite a surprise,” she says. But she adds: “I think it’s all negotiable—and it should be.”

If so, Museum of Flight, with its larger market, might have an advantage over Evergreen, but Bailey remains undaunted. Evergreen built the new facility partly as a Field of Dreams impulse: If you build it, the shuttle will come. When it comes to exhibits, he says, “we don’t do penny-ante stuff.” Probably the right attitude.

Guy Gugliotta is a writer in Pelham, New York.


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Comments (15)

I think Kennedy Space Center should conserve one, give one to Air & Space and the last one to Johnson Space Center.

Posted by Francisco on January 26,2010 | 05:48 PM

You failed to mention the very active effort of the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio

Posted by Rick on January 27,2010 | 11:37 PM

I would get a hold of an independent to refurbish it for universal flight. I'd live in it as my penthouse until take off time.

Posted by james moerike on January 29,2010 | 06:10 PM

The Shuttles should be put in space and used as living space or space tugs.

Posted by Edgar Topp on February 2,2010 | 07:16 AM

I'd like to see one of them displayed at the museum of the United States Air Force in Ohio, since the Orbiters preformed several military missions, including several classified ones and if it had not been for the Challenger disaster the shuttle fleet would have been regularly launched out of Vandenburg Air Force Base in California to preform flights for the Air Force. Preferably it would be the surviving Orbiter with the most military flights to its name. I agree with the recommendation of Kennedy Space Center, they flew regularly from there and the center also has a complete Saturn V and many other lifters. I partially disagree with sending one of the Orbiters to the Smithsonian, they already have the Enterprise so in my mind they seem pretty covered, however granted that was the prototype and quite different that Endeavour, Atlantis, or Discovery, variety is good, it just may not be totally fair to the other museums. Rockwell was also bought by Boeing, so possibly Boeing's Museum in Washington should be a contender, it would give them reason to build a facility to house their Concord and other large craft which currently sit outside exposed to the elements. Most of all I would like to see them go to good homes, and preferably ones I see myself visiting in the future.
Oh and I would like to see the latest replacement program actually result in something substantial.

Posted by Elliot Fox on February 2,2010 | 12:53 AM

I hope that Evergreen Air and Space can get on for it's Oregon Museum. It would be a wonderful compliment to the Hughes H-4 Hurcules (Spruce Goose) and the X-15 they already have. Good luck, Evergreen!

Posted by Dave Levison on February 8,2010 | 12:00 PM

I can't imagine the three orbiters not going to KSC, JSC and the Smithsonian. Enterprise is the wildcard; there are any number of other institutions that can make a good case.

Posted by Bill Hensley on February 8,2010 | 06:38 PM

As a Chicagoan who grew up being inspired by the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I would love to see an orbiter find a permanent home in this city. If there are three available one on each coast and one in the Midwest would be ideal. I've started a FaceBook page to help gather support.

Please join if you also think Chicago would be a good home.
http://bit.ly/afOnAz

Many thanks for this article.

Posted by Adam Hicks on February 11,2010 | 11:40 AM

Would be nice to see one go to the Strategic Air Command museum at the former Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska but, unfortunately, they probably couldn't afford the asking price plus the S&H, either.

Posted by Ron Varone on February 11,2010 | 09:18 PM

What's this part about "The National Air and Space Museum...is virtually guaranteed first pick "

Well, of course it is. It's already been promised to the Smithsonian by NASA. Only the Atlantis and the Endeavour are up for grabs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/science/space/17nasa.html

Posted by Christopher Black on February 13,2010 | 11:26 PM

The people paid for them and the people should have total say since we own them lock stock and barrel. that means very simply that they should be located where the largest number of people will have affordable access. The contract should include free admittance by all U.S. citizens. Property rights are still intact in this nation and we paid for them already.

Posted by Larry Lee on February 24,2010 | 10:18 PM

The NASA Program will cease in September 2010 but I believe the NASA Shuttle will start up again as appropriate funds are available for space exploration. Production will create suitable airships and jobs will move people in that direction for the future. Time will tell the Shuttle Program is a part of history in the making.

Posted by tko on March 4,2010 | 05:09 PM

The Tulsa Air and Space Museum qualifies as an educational
museum. A lot of the parts for the shuttle was made in
Tulsa. We have a 10,000 foot runway. American Airlines
provides the 747 for transport. A number of companies would
provide service to maintain and service the shuttle. And
we are in the center of the United States which would serve
all the central states.

Posted by Richard Helm on March 11,2010 | 06:57 PM

Consider Tulsa, OK. Home to many of the bits, pieces and major structures of the space program that were manufactured there by Rockwell International,Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. There is a relatively new air and space museum located at the end of a 10,000 ft. runway to which the 747 transporter aircraft could taxi after landing. I might add that the 747 originally belonged to American Airlines which has a huge maintenance base at Tulsa International aiorport.

The air and space museum at Tulsa has made known its desire to obtain one of the shuttles and is already involved in a fund raising effort to obtain same.

Also, consider that we are located in the middle of this great country which would be an ideal fit to the locations at the left and right coasts of the USA that are vying for this great prize.

Posted by Al Sorensen on March 12,2010 | 05:19 PM

As I understand it, the shuttles are going to follow the major simulators where they can be used to showcase the vehicle. You can see the Orbiter from the outside, and see what the flight controls look like from inside the simulator. It's part of a package.

Find out where the simulators are going and you have a short list for Orbiter placement.

Posted by Anonymous on August 14,2010 | 09:33 PM

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