Space Shuttle Retirement Locations

After the final flight this summer, America's space shuttles will retire to four locations across the continent, from California to Florida. Houston, home of Mission Control, was snubbed — it will receive shuttle seats, with actual training simulators leaving the JSC grounds for other museums in the midwest.

Atlantis will go to KSC, home of every historic launch in NASA history. The news provoked cheers from the audience assembled to hear NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announce the orbiters' new homes, on the 30th anniversary of the first shuttle flight and the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight. Millions of visitors to KSC and the other institutions will be inspired by the chance to see a real, flown shuttle, he said.

Endeavour will wind up at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, Bolden said.

Discovery, the first shuttle to officially retire and NASA's most-traveled orbiter, will go to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Space shuttle Enterprise, which never reached orbit but served as the first test vehicle, already inhabits that space, and it will be transferred to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York.

"Take care of our shuttles," Bolden told the recipients, his voice breaking, as it did several times throughout his speech.

For full article, go here: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-04/celebrating-30-years-shuttle-program-nasa-announces-orbiters-final-resting-places