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" Earlier this week the space agency issued a  Request for Information (RFI) to educational institutions, museums, and &amp;quot;other organizations&amp;quot; in an attempt to sell off the remaining space shuttles in 2010. The estimated total for tax, tags and freight is $42 million. According to NASA, the RFI will &amp;quot;gauge the level and scope of interest of U.S. organizations in acquiring ... orbiters and other major flight hardware.&amp;quot; The agency hopes to find homes for two of the three orbiters; Discovery is already earmarked for the Smithsonian&amp;#039;s National Air and Space Museum. By law, the institution has something akin to a rights-of-first-refusal agreement with NASA that allows it first crack at space memorabilia once the government is done with it.  Discovery&amp;#039;s long, active history makes it a logical choice for the Smithsonian. The third of NASA&amp;#039;s winged spaceships and the oldest working orbiter, Discovery was deployed for the Hubble Space Telescope on mission STS-31 in April 1990, carried the 77-year-old John Glenn back into space in 1998, and was twice NASA&amp;#039;s return-to-flight spacecraft--after the Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Columbia explosion five years ago. While Enterprise, the shuttle built for test flights, anchors the Smithsonian&amp;#039;s space collection at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles airport in Virginia, the museum has long wanted to replace it with an operational orbiter. &amp;quot;To have any flown orbiter would be wonderful,&amp;quot; says Valerie Neal, the Smithsonian&amp;#039;s curator of the human spaceflight collection. &amp;quot;The Smithsonian tries to acquire the oldest or first-flown aircraft--so up until 2003, we&amp;#039;d hoped it would be Columbia. Now, of course, Discovery would be a perfect fit.&amp;quot; But that history comes with a hefty price tag--even for the internationally renowned Smithsonian. &amp;quot;We were in a different era then, where we had no eBay and people who were looking to make money off of artifacts,&amp;quot; NASA spokesman Michael Curie told CollectSpace, a Web site devoted to space memorabilia. &amp;quot;So it was to everyone&amp;#039;s advantage to try to provide them to those who might display them.&amp;quot; NASA makes an important distinction: The $42 million isn&amp;#039;t to buy an orbiter, but to prepare it for public presentation--nearly $30 million goes to &amp;quot;safeing&amp;quot; the craft (removing the fuel systems and other environmental hazards), approximately $8 million goes to display preparation and the final $6 million or so is spent on transportation and installation. Technically, the agency says, the cost is compensation for shipping and handling. Industry observers also suggest that the cash-strapped space agency is grabbing every dollar it can find for the over-budget Constellation Program. In August, budget constraints forced NASA to scrap plans to have the shuttle&amp;#039;s replacement, Orion, ready by 2013. The orbiters should be available Sept. 30, 2011, according to the RFI, and they should be ferried to their final destinations by May 31, 2012--where they will likely remain for a long time, since the agency is also decommissioning the 747 that is used to haul the spacecraft. &amp;quot;In the past, sometimes we have paid for this sort of &amp;#039;shipping and handling,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Neal says, &amp;quot;but this is unprecedented in terms of the cost involved. We&amp;#039;re thrilled to have an orbiter designated for us, but we&amp;#039;ll have to resolve the cost matter. Luckily, it&amp;#039;s not like we have to come up with the money in 90 days.&amp;quot;  RELATED STORIES * PLUS: Discovery Carries Self-Destruct Switch  * Q&amp;amp;amp;A: 10 Questions for NASA&amp;#039;s Shuttle Launch Support Crew  * COMPLETE COVERAGE: News &amp;amp;amp; Analysis on the Future of Space   (Photograph by NASA) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a12272/4296464/>