by canofhumdingers » Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:45 am
The only one I feel was a slight to Houston was New York. As a relatively new Houstonian, I still feel like this city got totally screwed.
Putting one at the Smithsonian in D.C. makes sense (even if they already had the enterprise test vehicle...). They've got SO much other MAJOR aviation and space stuff that it just makes sense to have one of the real shuttles in the world's best air and space museum.
Florida makes sense b/c that's where they launched them.
California makes sense b/c they did have some involvement in the shuttle program (they were a landing site, that was actually used a few times). Plus it puts one on the west coast so more people will get to see it.
But New York over Houston?! Houston is freaking NASA headquarters and mission control! New York has NOTHING to do with the space program. New York is only a few hours away from D.C. And you already had TWO shuttles on the east coast with D.C. and Florida! Putting one in Houston makes more sense just on the NASA connection alone, but it also would've at least put a shuttle somewhat in the middle of the country so not EVERYONE would have to travel to a coast to see one. Ugh.