It feels weird to take one from the most prominent air & space museum in the country, though. There are three space worthy shuttles on display: Atlantis at KSC in Florida, Discovery ar the Smithsonian outside of DC (at their facility by the Dulles airport), and Endeavor at the California Science Center in LA. There’s one more prototype orbiter, Enterprise, at the Intrepid Museum in NYC, and a training mockup, Pathfinder, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. While LA doesn’t have a direct connection to the space shuttle, the orbiters were built about 60 miles away, in Palmdale, and, honestly, it’s the only one on display on that side of the country. KSC has an obvious connection to the shuttle. The shuttle’s engines were developed and tested in Huntsville. If Houston were to poach any of the orbiters, I’d think Enterprise in NYC has the most tenuous connection with the program, and there are already two other orbiters on the east coast.
It feels weird to take one from the most prominent air & space museum in the country, though. There are three space worthy shuttles on display: Atlantis at KSC in Florida, Discovery ar the Smithsonian outside of DC (at their facility by the Dulles airport), and Endeavor at the California Science Center in LA. There’s one more prototype orbiter, Enterprise, at the Intrepid Museum in NYC, and a training mockup, Pathfinder, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. While LA doesn’t have a direct connection to the space shuttle, the orbiters were built about 60 miles away, in Palmdale, and, honestly, it’s the only one on display on that side of the country. KSC has an obvious connection to the shuttle. The shuttle’s engines were developed and tested in Huntsville. If Houston were to poach any of the orbiters, I’d think Enterprise in NYC has the most tenuous connection with the program, and there are already two other orbiters on the east coast.