For Sale: Space Shuttle, 1 owner, Good Condition

[scottaa1]

I have to say that I'm a bit saddened by the retirement of the shuttle fleet. I wasn't yet a teenager when the test flights and initial operational flights happened. I can remember my 'where were you when' moments when the Challenger and Columbia disasters occured. No more shuttle flights after this year.

Well, if you're interested in orbiting the Earth or buying the world's most expensive lawn ornament, NASA may just have a deal for you.

The space agency announced late last week it has dropped the sale price of a used space shuttle from $42 million to the bargain-basement price of $28.8 million. With NASA moving to retire the space shuttle fleet this fall, the agency is looking to move a few shuttles and bring in some much-needed cash.

link

[knapplc]

Let me see what I have in my pocket....

[Metroid]

Let me see what I have in my pocket....

Wanna go in halvsies?

[dream_017]

Not sure my lawn is big enough for that kind of an ornament...but it would be pretty cool to have

[scottaa1]

Not sure my lawn is big enough for that kind of an ornament...but it would be pretty cool to have

The ultimate redneck lawn ornament... a space shuttle up on blocks in the front yard.

[knapplc]

Not sure my lawn is big enough for that kind of an ornament...but it would be pretty cool to have

The ultimate redneck lawn ornament... a space shuttle up on blocks in the front yard.

With grass so tall you can't see it?


Why don't they auction pieces of it? They'd make more money that way, I'm thinking. I'd love to have a piece of the tile, or some button or something.

[stomperrob]

It works with planes, so maybe you could convert it to a unique vehicle:

[bigh0rt]

If the Pontiac Silverdome sold for a cool half-mil, this really shouldn't run that much either.

[lmcjaho]

If the Pontiac Silverdome sold for a cool half-mil, this really shouldn't run that much either.

Wow, that's really harsh. I mean sure, there were a couple of disasters in the decades the shuttle fleet was in service, but to compare it to the DETROIT LIONS?!?!?!?!!? Harsh...

[scottaa1]

bumping a thread... because I can I remember being in grade school and they wheeled in the tv on the roller cart for us to watch the first shuttle launch. Not long after hearing about the Reagan assassination attempt on the same loudspeakers, come to think.

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/fi ... 93371.html

After some last-minute suspense over the weather and some launch pad equipment, Atlantis and its four astronauts blasted off at 11:29 a.m. EDT in front of a crowd at Cape Canaveral, Fla., estimated at close to 1 million, the size of the throng that watched Apollo 11 shoot to the moon in 1969.

After Atlantis' return, scheduled for July 20, it will be lights out for the shuttle program. Thousands of workers — including about 1,800 in the Houston area — will be laid off within days.

With no successor to the space shuttle ready to fly, it will be at least three years — possibly five or more — before astronauts are launched again from U.S. soil.

Shuttle crews built the International Space Station, repaired several satellites in orbit and, in a feat that captured the public's imagination, fixed the Hubble Space Telescope's blurry vision, enabling it to see deeper into the cosmos than ever before