Want a Surplus Space Shuttle? You can have it for $42 Mil

[Neal Nurmi]

I don't really see how the U. S. can possibly be able to keep up the ISS program anyway, much less fly to the moon. If they give all our grandkids' money to the bankers, borrow some more to bail out the auto industry, keep pissing away billions in Iraq and Afghanistan, pony up more trillions on an intelligence establishment that can't even find Osama Bin Laden (so what are we spending all that "intelligence" money on?) and meanwhile drive the world economy into total collapse, how can they possibly afford to continue to buy Billion dollar toys???

Last edited by Neal Nurmi on Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Pat Carry]

Well stated Neil.

[BCalmes]

So why don't they put one at Johnson Space Center (or at Ellington), and put the other on display at Edwards AFB, or maybe Palmdale?

Maybe Enterprise should go to Edwards where it was flight tested. Wow... think of a climate controlled building to house a 747 with the Enterprise on its back!

[hahnej]

nobody has a hoist to get it off the 747except CA and FL....they put the tailcone on and do an Enterprise separation flight test right onto your runway....coast it into the hanger...toss you the keys....all for $42 bil....Iwant to ride in the jump seat....

[RickH]

Can't fly it off,...nobody has a type rating !!

[mustangdriver]

As far as I know the NMUSAF is still getting the Discovery. Not sure about the 42 million price, but we will see. Remember that the media doesn't always get everything 100% right.

[mustangdriver]

Where is the Natl Museum of the USAF or any other museum for that matter going to come up with that kind of money to acquire one of the shuttles? Chris, can you enlighten us at all?

I have got to say that if the are going to charge the NASM, NMUSAF, or anyother museum that much, most will not do it. Think of what a museum can do with 42 million. It will never happen.

[jamesintucson]

As far as I know the NMUSAF is still getting the Discovery. Not sure about the 42 million price, but we will see. Remember that the media doesn't always get everything 100% right.

The $42 million price tag is correct. According to NASA's RFI document only one of the orbiters has been assigned anywhere and that is to NASM the other two will be stored at Kennedy until NASA decides where to send them and that will be no earlier than the end of 2011.

James

[Pat Carry]

Where is the NASM going to get 42 mill?

[CH2Tdriver]

It does seem like going backwards...but that is probably the most realistic way to get back to the moon. What I really wanted to see was the X-33 fly that would have led to the full scale Venture Star. A Single Stage to Orbit Shuttle replacement. The X-33 was 90% complete when they scrapped the program in 2001.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2006/01/ ... -happened/

Pete

So if they retire all the shuttles by 2010, how are they gonna get to the ISS? Ask the Russians nicely for a lift?

No, pay the Rusians alot of money for a lift.

I think the brass at NASA have been drinking too much rocket fuel hile watching the HBO series, From the Earth to the Moon, they are going from the shuttle to a capsule that looks like a collision between a Apollo and a Soyuze.Seems that they are going backwards in design, why doesn't NASA just gather up all the old Apollo hardware, dust it off and use it ? There are flight ready Lunar landers that were not used, as well as a Saturn V, and I am sure there are a couple of command and service modules still around.

[mustangdriver]

I still have my doubts on this. THe NASM does NOT have 42 million dollars to drop on this. THe NMUSAF does not either. If that is the case get ready to see a few shuttles scrapped.

[tom d. friedman]

sell 1 to richard branson, or united parcel service for the 1st interplanetary parcel deliveries!!! cheese to the moon, then on to mars to bring back any extraterrestrials who want to winter in miami beach.

[Garth]

As far as I know the NMUSAF is still getting the Discovery. Not sure about the 42 million price, but we will see. Remember that the media doesn't always get everything 100% right.

Nope. NASM, by law, has right of first refusal on all retired NASA artifacts. I've heard from multiple NASM sources, including their spaceflight curator, that they are taking Discovery. She's the most historically significant of the remaining shuttles, being the oldest flown shuttle, the shuttle that flew all the return to flight flights, and the shuttle that took John Glenn on his second trip up.

I've heard that NMUSAF wants Atlantis, mainly because she's the shuttle that flew the classified USAF/NRO flights back in the 1980s. I think that she was also the shuttle with mods to allow her to fly polar orbit flights out of Vandenburg. That leaves Enterprise and Endeavour.

An important point about NASM's right of first refusal. They have used it to grab LOTS of NASA artifacts, which are then horse-traded or loaned out to other museums. I think just about every space capsule other than Gus Grissom's sunk 'n recovered Mercury is, or was at one point, held by them. They don't have to pay NASA squat for the artifacts ... just the transportation and preservations costs. It would not surprise me at all if NASM plans on grabbing all three shuttles and the $42 million asking price is what NASM, not NASA, wants in order to let them go.

Given the alleged discontent within the NASM staff (and amongst high $$$ NASM donors and supporters) over Swoose and the ongoing war of words wrt Flak Bait and SSSB, it also wouldn't surprise me at all if Altantis was leveraged in a barter trade with NMUSAF. The USAF has three B-17s (SSSB, Memphis Belle and Swoose), and ready access to more than a few later-model B-24s currently pulling gate-guard duty. I wonder if NMUSAF would be willing to trade SSSB and a certain "D" model B-24 (one that would require some clean-up of its nose-art for the broader audience NASM serves, of course) for Atlantis?

[RickH]

Garth, I'd rather see the Barksdale aircraft go there. Then we'd have two restored static B-24s. An early and a late model.

Garth is certainly correct about NASA property being run by the Smithsonian before they get rid of it. Not just flight vehicles but everything, even the ground support equipment, no matter how mundane.

[Garth]

Garth, I'd rather see the Barksdale aircraft go there. Then we'd have two restored static B-24s. An early and a late model.

Garth is certainly correct about NASA property being run by the Smithsonian before they get rid of it. Not just flight vehicles but everything, even the ground support equipment, no matter how mundane.

I was just being a smart-a** with the SB remark ...

That was one of the things stressed by the curator I had the discussion with - NASM has a HUGE task ahead of it trying to figure out what to do with retired shuttle-related equipment and artifacts that it can take possession of.

--Garth