SEATTLE NASA will announce Tuesday morning whether Seattle's Museum of Flight will become home to one of the retiring space shuttles. A big crowd is expected to be on hand at the museum awaiting the outcome.
Museum curators are feeling confident because, they say, they have met all the requirements NASA has placed on them. The Museum is spending $12 million to construct a new glass and steel building along East Marginal Way just for the shuttle.
(Editor's note: The announcement will be streamed live on KING5.com at 10 a.m. Pacific Time Tuesday.)
NASA also wants museums with a strong educational component, something the Museum of Flight says it provides by educating some 140,000 young visitors every year.
About 400,000 people go through the museum annually. The museum says it injects about $30 million into the local economy.
Whoever receives the shuttle has to be a good steward off it, not for 10 years or 20 years, but for centuries. Because once it lands, it stays, said former astronaut Bonnie Dunbar. She left as president of the museum last year in order to lead the fight to bring a shuttle to Seattle.
The three shuttles are the Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour. Discovery is considered a lock for the Smithsonian. But, that museum would give up the shuttle Enterprise, which it has on display now but was never launched into orbit. So, the Museum of Flight still has three chances to win.
Another thing working in Seattle's favor is Boeing Field, where the Museum of Flight lives. The runway is long enough that the shuttle can be transported by piggyback on a 747 right to the Museum's door.
Other locations considered to have strong chances of winning are the National Air Force Musuem in Ohio, home to astronaut John Glenn; the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City; and the NASA visitors centers in Florida and Houston.
The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon is also competing for the shuttle. Evergreen is also home to Howard Hughe's Spruce Goose and the SR 71 Blackbird spy plane.
Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary since Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. It's also the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle mission.
