What a Deal

Anyone looking for a used space vehicle? They are free, aside from a nominal shipping and handling fee..

The space shuttle Atlantis will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida; the Endeavour, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles; the Discovery, at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia; and the test shuttle, Enterprise, at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York, NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said during a ceremony at the Kennedy Center.

...of 28 million bucks. And perhaps a few winks and slaps on the back..

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the Johnson Space Center in Houston should have been one of the retirement homes for an orbiter, "but it is clear political favors trumped common sense and fairness in the selection of the final locations for the orbiter fleet," he said in a statement.

Well, hope Cornyn has more evidence than Trump. Then again, why would Obama want to reward either Texas or the Bush oil family with anything? There's always a political calculation for these guys, even with a dying space program.

Speaking of which, soon the world will have no operating Concorde supersonic transports or Space Shuttles. If that seems like a reverse course for western civilization and aeronautics in general, that's because it is.

BTW, doh! The Airbus A380s wingspan is so wide that many US airports cannot handle the behemoth without widening the taxiways or taking special care. Not sure it happened here but:

“Comair might not have stopped in an outrageous spot for every other airplane in the world,” though the A380’s wingspan may have erased any margin for error, Voss said.

Surprising they didn't get any passenger interviews -- that looked like it might have hurt.