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Bad news, space fans: Seattle loses bid for Space Shuttle

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We’ve been watching with eager anticipation for today’s announcement on where the retired Space Shuttles will land. But it is not looking good for Seattle’s Museum of Flight, once considered one of the top bidders. The Seattle Times reports, citing an unnamed source, that the museum will not get one of the coveted space vehicles.

Few details are available at this time, and we’ll keep tracking the story this morning. But it doesn’t look too promising.

Seattle’s Museum of Flight was one of 27 bidders for two three of the remaining space vehicles, with the Discovery slated to go to the Smithsonian. And now it looks like the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York will get the prototype Enterprise shuttle, considered the best shot for Seattle’s Museum of Flight, according to the New York Daily News.

The California Science Center in Los Angeles is expected to get one of the shuttles, as will the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Museum of Flight, backed by the entire Washington state Congressional delegation, the State House and Senate, and Governor Christine Gregoire, made a strong argument to receive one of the shuttles on its website.

“We believe that our mission to be the foremost educational air and space museum in the country, along with Washington state’s extensive contributions to aerospace innovation, make us uniquely qualified to be the final home for one of the shuttles. We are eager to hear NASA’s decision,” says the Museum of Flight President and CEO Douglas King, in a news release.

Unfortunately, it looks like that decision has come, and Seattle will be left on the sidelines.

Here’s the live broadcast of the decision, which is being made from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

UPDATE: Here’s the official decision: The Kennedy Space Center in Florida will get the Atlantis; The California Science Center in L.A. will get the Endeavour; The Smithsonian in D.C. will get the Discovery; and The Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum in New York will get the Enterprise. Other organizations which bid for the orbiters will get “shuttle hardware and artifacts.”


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Here’s more on the bidding for the space shuttles:

  • http://eyejot.com/users/davidg davidgeller

    That sucks.

    • Sarah Stackhouse

      Agreed. I’m bummed.

  • Hay

    That doesn’t make sense if you say New York/Intrepid gets one, California/LA gets one, and Kennedy/Florida gets one, because one is already promised to the Smithsonian, and there are only three shuttles.

    • johnhcook

      I wasn’t entirely clear above, so let me explain. There are four shuttles in play. One is already housed at the Smithsonian, The Enterprise, a test vehicle which never flew in space.

      It is being moved to the Intrepid sea, air and space museum in New York. The Discovery will then move to the Smithsonian in DC.

      The other two, Endeavour and the Atlantis, are expected to land in LA and The Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (However, conflicting reports are out this morning with the WSJ reporting that Texas will get one of the shuttles, while KHOU in Houston said the city will not get one).

      “Houston, we have a problem,” was the lead on the KHOU story.

      http://www.khou.com/news/local/Sources-Houston-will-not-get-one-of-the-retired-space-shuttles-119699914.html

      Kind of a confusing shuttle swap, but the point is Seattle doesn’t appear to be getting one.