NASA To Announce Next Month If Tulsa Gets Retiring Space Shuttle

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma -- The Tulsa Air and Space Museum will find out on April 12, 2011 if it will be the home for a retiring space shuttle. 

NASA says the agency will be making an announcement on that date, where two space shuttles will winds up. 

Right now, the Discovery space shuttle is at the International Space Station, but when it returns to earth, it will be retired and sent to the Smithsonian Institution. 

NASA says the April 12^th date is significant because it will mark the 30^th anniversary of the first shuttle flight. 

2/24/2011 Related Story: Shuttle Launch Focuses Attention On Tulsa's Contributions To The Program 

NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden told a committee of the U.S. House on Thursday that the agency would pick the winning sites on April 12th, from 29 different cities trying to land one.

Discovery, which is currently in space on a mission, has already been promised to the Smithsonian National Air And Space Museum in Washington, D.C.  That leaves Atlantis and Endeavour for which to find homes.

The Smithsonian already has the Enterprise.  It was the first shuttle built, but served as a testbed for the design's atmospheric flight characteristics and never actually went into space. 

Once Discovery arrives, the Smithsonian would likely loan Enterprise to another facility somewhere in the country.