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The entire Houston/Space Shuttle brouhaha aside, it's a bleeding shame that it didn't fly. It's the only Saturn V on display that basically consists of flight-rated components. It could have been launched.
My dad worked on it. He would have wanted the candle lit.
BTW: Thanks to you I've started Googling the Houston rocket. Found some pretty cool photos of his stuff on Flickr. So . Good job.
NASA fails to calm Houston anger over lost shuttle - Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/news/article/NASA-fails-to-calm-Houston-anger-over-lost-shuttle-2141180.php - broken link)
HOUSTON (AP) — A report released by NASA's watchdog on Thursday saying the agency acted properly when it chose not to award Houston a retired space shuttle has not soothed the bruised egos of some local officials who view the decision as a slap in the face to a city that has long tied its fortunes to the nation's space program.
Although the report concluded NASA's decision was not politically motivated, some Houstonians remain angry the home of Mission Control was not chosen as a final resting place for one of the four Orbiters. Local officials and congressmen insist NASA and President Barack Obama's administration excluded the Texas city because of the state's Republican leanings.
They pointed to an initial finding in 2009 that determined Houston should get a shuttle. They accused NASA administrator Charles Bolden of deliberately changing the criteria to focus on areas that would attract international tourists rather than those with ties to the program so that he could exclude Houston. They disagree with Bolden's conclusion that Houston and its space center do not get enough international traffic to justify putting a lucrative shuttle in its museum.
"It's clear to me this was rigged from the beginning and it was pretty clear Houston would not receive the Orbiter," GOP Congressman Kevin Brady told The Associated Press.
"By completely eliminating the ties of Houston to the shuttle they were able to justify moving it to cities and communities with few ties, such as New York. This criteria should be an embarrassment to the White House and to the leadership that made this decision," he said.
Bolden — a former shuttle commander who once lived in Houston — and a special agency team decided the retired shuttles would go to Cape Canaveral, Fla., Los Angeles, a Smithsonian Institute facility in Virginia and New York City's Intrepid Museum.
Bolden, who still owns a home in Houston, told NASA investigators that personally he "would have loved to have placed an Orbiter in Houston," but the Space Center Houston had lower attendance and fewer international visitors than the winners.
NASA's Office of Inspector General concluded in its report that there was "no evidence that the team's recommendation or the administrator's decision were tainted by political influence or any other improper consideration."
Bob Mitchell, president of Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, which led the city's bid to secure a shuttle, fired back angrily, saying the initial findings didn't suit Bolden "so he changed the rules. He didn't like what they said so they changed the rules."
"I'm not surprised. I said it from the beginning — it was a political decision," Mitchell said.
He scoffed at the idea that Houston is not an international city or could not attract enough foreign visitors.
"Name another city that is as international as Houston. Houston has 94 international consulates. The only city that surpasses that is New York City," Mitchell countered.
U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, a Republican from Sugar Land, Texas, said Bolden "sought and implemented a plan that would deliberately exclude ties to the shuttle program and therefore remove Houston from the equation."
Most puzzling to some of the Houstonians was how the city went from a top pick in 2009 to No. 10 of 13 finalists after the criteria was changed. The city scored lower than museums in Chicago, Seattle, San Diego and McMinnville, Ore.
"It doesn't make sense," Mitchell concluded.
I was kind of shocked myself, Houston is almosy synonomous with the US space program
I live in Houston. I don't think we should have gotten one. I love living here, but we are not a tourist town.
The Shuttle may be a big part of Houston, but it's an even bigger part of America. It belongs somewhere it will be seen, not 25 miles south of downtown Houston where scant view tourists visit as it is.
But it's things like the shuttle that improve any town's attraction to tourists. So we have a catch-22.
Houston should have gotten one instead of New York City. That being said, I think a lot of the country doesn't really connect Houston with the space program. In Florida we think of hte launch/landing site as the space program and Nasa. I'd say that in my 30+ years living in Florida I never once thought of connecting Houston with hte space shuttle. To me Houston was more connected with the moon programs of decades past. Really, a bunch of guys sitting in a room monitoring computers could be anywhere. I'm not sure why they didn't move that function to Cape Kennedy years ago.
Also, there is the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi too. I had never heard of it until I flew over there two weeks ago and had to navigate around its restricted airspace (which is really small and easy to miss if your nav software is zoomed out any at all.
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. Good job.
yep!
