NASA spaceport breaks ground for shuttle display

Still think one should be in Houston. Three on the east coast, one on the west. Maybe people in the rest of the country would like to see one.

See what America used to be children.....

Summer 2013 I am going to Florida, I haven't visited for awhile now. It would be nice occasion.

$100 to spend on displaying the shuttle? But nothing to spend on a shuttle replacement? NASA is going backwards.

Actually I can see NASA being real big in the museum business. They haven't done a lot of new stuff in the manned space flight business in quite a while. They don't seem to understand that most of the public would be more interested in a manned space flight that does more than go around in circles and keep people employed doing nothing. Is NASA a federal government thing?

These days a lot of people posting one and the same sentence: "NASA is waste of money." If that is so important to you or you hoping someone will change his/her opinion by reading your post - hmm I do not think so. Why NASA is waste of money? What would not be considered waste of money according to you?....

I saw a space shuttle on display in Huntsville when I was a teen going to the space academy there. They are a inspiring site. NASA may spend a lot of money, but they inspire people to do better and be better. Here is hoping the next step in our space program goes as well as the shuttle program did.

No taxpayer money is being used. NASA no longer runs the visitor center. A company called Deleware North runs it, funds it, and receives the profit from the ticket sales. They are funding the new exhibit.....not NASA. I do also believe, but am not sure, they pay NASA a portion of the profit made at the visitor center.

Glad space travel is going to private industry. Any agecy run by gov't gets bloated and burecratic. 100 mill to get the shuttles ready for display is a great exaple of that.

No mention of Enterprise in this article. I know it was awarded to the Intrepid museum in New York City.

I wanna see it too!! ^ ^

There was such a bull headed decision to end the program! It should have been reversed!
Instead of a display, a serious effort should be made to refurbish the fleet for continuing operation. The tooling is amortized, the technology has advanced to where it is possible to create fuel tanks, and solid rocket boosters, for lower real costs than the 1980s. I understand a process change to the foam insulation, to make it more environmentally "friendly, resulted in the beginning of the foam loss on launch problem. This problem was cited, with the loss of Challenger as the reason for ending the shuttle program. The United States needs to be in control of it's own space present and future with BOTH a NASA and private space program.

We visited the Florida Space Center this past fall. Now, admittedly, it was off-season and the place was nearly empty of visitors, but there was a sad pall over the place. The feeling of "the end is near" was palpable, especially I'm sure, because of the (then) recent announcement of the end of the shuttle program and pending layoffs of shuttle workers. Even the music they play over speakers throughout the park, which I assume was supposed to be mysterious or something, sounded dirge-like, as if they were playing their own funeral music. Downright depressing!

IMO, NASA represents our national identity and exceptionalism. It is a source of national pride! (Tell me how extraordinarily proud you felt when we went to the moon, or when Columbia landed after her first mission, and the heartache you felt when we lost some wonderfully brave explorers!)

Without getting too political, the current administration doesn't believe in that sort of American exceptionalism and would rather re-appropriate the NASA budget for entitlement programs and more government thugs and slugs. Let's hope to God that we can soon get back to even a flicker of the days when the world was in awe of our accomplishments. It may seem like money thrown away on boondoggles to the moon and such, but the scientific and technological advancements that come along as a by-product are simply priceless!

Wasn't the program cancelled because of budgetary restrictions???

What a proud moment for NASA to be able to relive their glory days !

These museums represents the past. What about the future?

I know 100 million people will also say this, but I need to vent....$100 million phuccccccking dollars on a space shuttle display??????? How long will it take to recover that money with visitors to this site? I don't know....seems to me that NASA could have used that money to employ people and save Bravard County.

not thinking on new projects, but building memorials from the good-old days......

If NASA can do museums but not space flight anymore, we don't need them. Thank you President Obama!

100 Million for a display - I think we need to reexamine NASA's budget.