At a ceremony commemorating the shuttle program, major-General Charles f. Bolden Jr., the administrator of NASA, the long-sought announcement made from which Museum parts will be soon would be.
The discovery, which completed its last flight last month, is headed to the Smithsonian for display in the spacious Steven f. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport. The Endeavour, currently on the launching pad for his final space voyage, will go to the California Science Center. The Atlantis, which is planned for its last mission in June, will make the complex Kennedy visitor.
The audience at the ceremony Kennedy broke out cheering and whooping crane of America as the General Bolden announced destination of Atlantis. "I guess I have something right today," said the General with a laugh.
Visible among the unsuccessful hopes for were the aviation museum in Seattle, which had already begun the construction of a wing that he hoped would house an Orbiter; the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Ohio; and Johnson Space Center of NASA in Texas, the site of mission control for the 135 shuttle missions.
The disappointment of Houston was made. Representative Pete Olson, a Republican whose district includes the Space Center, has stated in a press release, "this smacks of a political gesture in a agency which has always been above politics".
With the discovery led to the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum will no longer need of the business, the shuttle has been exposed it since 2003. The company, which was used for the first glide tests, but never sent into orbit, will now be the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan.
Twenty institutions across the country had put in one of the orbiters bids, and in recent weeks, General Bolden has been awash with letters and telephone calls from members of Congress and others advocating various sites.
"There were many, many worthy institutions requesting an orbiter and only four for everyone,", said the General Bolden.
NASA also announced, Tuesday, that hundreds of other pieces of equipment of the American space shuttle would travel to the various museums. The Museum in Seattle, for example, will not receive an Orbiter carried out, but he would obtain a model scale which is now at the Johnson Space Center and is used for the training of astronauts.
NASA had been scheduled to make his choice of Museum last year, but that is how the final Shuttle flight had been scheduled for last September. As the calendar for the final missions was stretched, therefore were the preparations for the careers of post-flying shuttles.
Finally, General Bolden has chosen Tuesday for the announcement coincide with the anniversaries of two historical moments in spaceflight: the 50th anniversary of the flight of Yuri Gagarin, Soviet Cosmonaut who was the first man in space and the 30th anniversary of the first launch of the space shuttlethe Colombia, in 1981.
Two shuttles - and astronauts on Board - have been lost over the past 30 years. The Challenger disintegrated at take-off in January 1986 due to a rocket of make-up leaky and 17 years later, separated the Columbia as it returned to Earth by the wing damage caused by the fall of insulating foam during takeoff.
In the aftermath of the Columbia, George w. Bush decided to resume flying the three remaining shuttles - discovery, the Atlantis and Endeavour, which had been built as a replacement for the Challenger - but had to withdraw their from the International Space Station construction was complete.
NASA asked a few years if the museums or other institutions had an interest in the acquisition of the shuttle. Potential bidders were informed that educational programs would accompany exhibitions, and that the shuttle would have to reside in a domestic environment, climate-controlled.
The winning institutions will now have to negotiate with NASA on the cost, estimated at $ 28.8 million each, preparing shuttles for display and transport them to their destinations. But all will have to find as much money: Congress exempt from the Smithsonian Institution, and the fresh transport for the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex - instead travel piggyback on a 747, Atlantis is to be towed only a short way on the road - be significantly lower.
Some orbiters can go on a farewell tour. NASA focuses on "perhaps taken them on a tour around various locations across the country while they are en route to their final destination," said Michael Curie, a spokesman for space agency.
NASA expects to deliver the shuttle next year.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 12, 2011
An earlier version of this article contained an incorrect photo caption. References to the company and the discovery were reversed.
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