Posted: Tue, Apr 12, 2011, 10:09 PM ET (0209 GMT)
NASA announced Tuesday that museums in California, Florida, New York, and near Washington DC that will host space shuttle orbiters when the fleet is retired later this year. NASA selected the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazt Center, in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC, as the future home of Discovery. Atlantis will go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, while Endeavour will go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The Enterprise orbiter, which never flew in space, will move from the Udvar-Hazy Center to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York. NASA selected those sites over more than 20 others around the country, including Space Center Houston and the National Museum of the Air Force in Ohio. Those and other sites will receive other shuttle artifacts as consolation prizes in place of orbiters. The decision, made by NASA administrator Charles Bolden, was sharply criticized by some legislators in Ohio and Texas.

Related Links:

•  collectSPACE article
•  AP article
•  CNN article
•  New York Times article
•  NASA press release