Obama administration ignores Texas in placing retired space shuttles

Houston Chronicle:

Dr. Vincent Privitera almost spilled his coffee when he learned Tuesday that Houston would not be home to a retired shuttle.

"I think it's disgraceful and an insult to the entire area, especially the Johnson Space Center," said Privitera, an 80-year-old retired psychiatrist from Nassau Bay, while sitting outside Starbucks on NASA Parkway. "It's an insult to the astronauts and to the thousands that work their tails off on the space program."

Privitera's sentiments were echoed throughout the Clear Lake area Tuesday after NASA administrator Charles Bolden announced that Houston would not get one of four retired space orbiters.

"It's a disappointment," said Richard Allen, president and chief executive officer of Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for JSC. "We certainly thought we should have been high on the list."

Space Center Houston planned to build a 53,000-square-foot facility to house one of the retired shuttles.

"I think it would have been great to be able to display one of the nation's treasures here," Allen said. "But we have lots of nation's treasurers here, and the space program will continue on."

...

Rocket Park near the entrance to the Space Center has the Mercury. Gemini and Apollo rockets and capsules on display. The Shuttle would have been an appropriate addition since all of the astronauts who flew in it trained at the Space Center.

I think it is another example of Obama's "screw Texas" attitude. He figures he has no chance of winning the State of Texas in 2012 and he decided to send the shuttles to places where he thinks he has a chance.

Related articles

• NASA picks homes for retiring shuttles (cnn.com)
• NASA space shuttle Enterprise coming to NYC (nydailynews.com)
• Lawmakers react to NASA shuttle announcement (thehill.com)

And this is from a local TV station: