BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The U.S. space agency is expected to announce the final resting places of the three retiring space shuttles Tuesday, on the 30th anniversary of the first-ever shuttle mission, media reports said.
The final announcement will be made by NASA administrator Charles Bolden at 1700 GMT during a ceremony at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. A press conference will follow two hours later.
The U.S. shuttle program is set to close for good later this year, after the final missions by Endeavour in April and Atlantis in June. Discovery ended its last journey to the International Space Station in March.
Twenty-one museums and science and visitor centers around the United States are vying for one of NASA's three retiring spaceships. Some of the hot contenders include National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio; Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City; Museum of Flight in Seattle; and Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
The Discovery, NASA's oldest and most traveled shuttle, is said to be headed to the Smithsonian, which also has a popular Air and Space museum location on the National Mall in Washington.
The prototype Enterprise shuttle, which never carried astronauts into orbit, is already on display at the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space museum that is located in Virginia, just outside the US capital, Washington.
NASA originally had four space shuttles. Challenger was destroyed during liftoff in 1986, and Endeavour was built as a replacement. Then Columbia was lost in 2003.
NASA puts the price tab for snagging Discovery, Atlantis or Endeavour at 28.8 million U.S. dollars. Early last year, NASA dropped the price from 42 million dollars.
(Agencies)
