Seattle scored just behind space shuttle winners

From Seattle PI: Seattle scored just behind space shuttle winners

Seattle finished fourth or fifth in the scoring to determine who would get three available space shuttle orbiters, according to a new report from NASA’s inspector general.

NASA offered up the retiring orbiters Enterprise and Atlantis, and the atmospheric test shuttle Enterprise. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum now has Enterprise but was already slated to get Discovery.

The space agency got expressions of interest from 29 institutions and deemed 13 eligible. It evaluated them using a system that awarded points for:

* Commitment to funding for moving and displaying the shuttle;
* Risk to having the funding ready;
* Availability of a facility for the shuttle;
* Ability to move a shuttle from a local airport to the site;
* Ability to meet NASA’s delivery schedule;
* Annual attendance;
* Regional population;
* International access (based on tourism);
* Museum certification or accreditation.

Here are the 13 institutions, with their point totals:

* California Science Center, in Los Angeles, 90;
* Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, in New York, 85;
* Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Fla., 85;
* The Museum of Flight, 80;
* National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, in Dayton, Ohio, 80;
* Adler Planetarium, in Chicago, 75;
* San Diego Air and Space Museum, 75;
* March Field Air Museum, in Riverside, Calif., 75;
* Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, in McMinnville, Ore., 70;
* Space Center Houston, 60;
* Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium, inTulsa, Okla., 60;
* U.S. Space and Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Ala., 60;
* Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History/Bush Library and Texas A&M, in College Station, Texas, 40

NASA awarded Endeavour to the California Science Center, Enterprise to Intrepid and Atlantis to Kennedy Space Center.

The Museum of Flight got top marks for everything but international access (where it got the lowest of three possible marks, attendance (second-lowest of four possible scores) and regional population (middle of three marks).

But the inspector general’s office found that NASA erroneously gave the Air Force Museum five points instead of 10 for transportation risk, meaning it should have tied with Intrepid and Kennedy Space Center, and finished ahead of the Museum of Flight.

Informed of the mistake, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told inspectors he would have made the same choices if he knew the Dayton museum tied with Intrepid and Kennedy, “because the Air Force Museum was unable to commit to raising the $28.8 million required to reimburse NASA for an Orbiter and because the Intrepid and the Kennedy Visitor Complex had larger regional populations and better access for international visitors.”

The inspectors said they found no evidence that the NASA review team’s recommendation or Boldin’s decision “were tainted by political influence or any other improper consideration.”

They said NASA should

* Expeditiously review recipients’ financial, logistical, and curatorial display plans to ensure they are feasible and consistent with the Agency’s educational goals and processing and delivery schedules;
* Ensure that recipient payments are closely coordinated with processing schedules, do not impede NASA’s ability to efficiently prepare the Orbiters for museum display, and provide sufficient funds in advance of the work to be performed;
* Work closely with the recipient organizations to minimize the possibility of delays in the delivery schedule that could increase the Agency’s costs or impact other NASA missions and priorities.