With fewer
than a dozen missions remaining before the scheduled retirement of the space
shuttle next year, NASA has turned its attention to what should become of the
orbiters, as well as the millions of shuttle spare parts that will be left over
when the program ends. For the first time in nearly 40 years since the last
transition from Apollo to shuttle, the agency is faced with deciding what
should be saved as artifacts for posterity.
Rendezvous, a quarterly magazine published to
provide NASA employees with the latest transition news, recently addressed the issue of
shuttle artifacts by interviewing Rich Wickman, transition manager for
Infrastructure, and Lindy Fortenberry, shuttle program artifacts lead, as well
as Valerie Neal, curator of the space shuttle collection at the National Air
and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
The
following originally appeared in the Winter 2009 issue of Rendezvous as
released by NASA.
What's
an artifact and who decides?
Normally,
we think of artifacts as objects from bygone eras that give us a window into
what life was like in the past. We think of crumbling ruins, dusty relics from
ancient tombs, shards of pottery and yellowed leaves of parchment. But what is
an artifact, exactly? And who decides what's an artifact or not?
To NASA and
the institutions interested in preserving the legacy of
the Space Shuttle Program, artifacts are the items that best capture the
human or technological achievements of the United States human spaceflight
program. They are things that teach and inspire. And they are the
"firsts."
The task of
figuring out what should be considered an artifact is shared by a large team of
people from NASA's Office of Infrastructure, the Office of Public Affairs, the
Space Shuttle Program and center institutional offices, plus representatives
from almost all the aspects of program logistics and flight operations. And
it's also the people -- educators, historians and visionaries from the nation's
top air and space museums -- who care about preserving the legacy of our
spacefaring achievements so it can be presented to a wide-eyed audience.
Addressing
the interest in artifacts
In 2008, an
informational pamphlet titled "Space Shuttle Program Artifacts"
was made
available by NASA to help answer key questions and map out next steps
for institutions interested in acquiring shuttle artifacts. In it, NASA defined
the term "Space Shuttle-Related Artifact" as "those items having
significance to the history of human spaceflight in the space shuttle
era."
In late
2008, NASA
issued a formal Request for Information -- or RFI -- to obtain input
from "educational institutions, science museums and other appropriate
organizations with experience in public display of space hardware and
nationally recognized historical artifacts." In addition to determining
which entities could bear the cost, including preparation, transportation and
the provision of an appropriate venue for display, the RFI sought to establish
how these artifacts could best be used to inspire American students and the
public at large.
From
Wickman and Fortenberry's perspective, the challenge often seems daunting.
There are, after all, more than 1.2 million line items to be excessed,
including the elephants-in-the-room: the orbiters and their main engines (flown
and not flown). In fact, of those 1.2 million items it was those few iconic
items that made the RFI necessary.
Finding
a home for retirement
"In
the August timeframe, we were getting a better handle on the transition and
retirement budget," Wickman said. "It became clear that the budget
would not allow NASA to bear the cost of preparing three orbiters for public
display. So the thought was put on the table that we should use the RFI as an
opportunity to see what organizations out there might be able to help offset
the costs of transferring an orbiter to their organization."
Unfortunately,
by the time it made it into the
news, offsetting the costs had been translated by reporters as putting the
shuttle on the auction block -- something NASA has no intention of doing.
"We're
not selling the shuttle," Wickman explained. "We intend to donate
them to eligible organizations. But we will be asking those organizations to
pick up the cost of moving the orbiters and making them safe for public
display."
Wickman
went on to make the point that the orbiters are $2 billion machines, so selling
them for what they are worth would be pretty hard to do. Not to mention the
fact that, since all NASA property belongs to the United States taxpayer, NASA
must follow federal property disposal regulations, which allow eligible
organizations to request that property be donated to them before it is offered
for public sale.
And though
they may seem a bargain compared to the price of a shuttle, the costs for
safing and moving the orbiters are significant. Wickman offered a rough
estimate of $42 million dollars per orbiter, which would include about $6
million in ferrying cost with the remainder divvied up among safing operations
and preparations for display.
Continue reading "Saving
The Space Shuttle, Piece By Piece" at collectSPACE.com.
Copyright 2008 collectSPACE.com. All rights
reserved.
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