The fuel guy will love you!
I think they should give them to museums…
Or one in my back yard…? 
Museum of Flight here in Seattle is vying to get one.
Hope they make it.
So is the Tulsa Air & Space Museum, and it actually has a good backing.
It would be nice if the NMUSAF got one. I’m sure more than a handful of USAFA graduates have graced their flight decks.
Because not everyone knows every abbreviation, I looked it up. NMUSAF is
the National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio.
I think the three should go as follows:
Smithsonian, because it’s “America’s Attic”
Kennedy, because that’s where they launched from and most flights landed
The other one should go to one of the following:
Edwards AFB, because they did testing there and several flights landed there and because it would put one on the west coast.
JSC (Johnson Space Center, Houston), because the flights were controlled from there
Or one should go to Dayton because it’s 3 hours from my house.
One should go to the Air Force Museum. If the Smithsonian wants a Shuttle, they need to give up the one they already have.
The NMUSAF has one of the largest collections of aircraft in the world and is the world’s largest museum of military aircraft (remember, the DoD missions). It draws 1.3 million every year and is free to enter. Ohio is the birthplace of aviation (so say our license plates and our state quarter).
Also, a correction to the news story, Atlantis is not retired yet, still one more mission, STS-335.
We need two! One for spare parts. 
How about one stacked and one for touring the inside.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!!! I’d love to see the whole assembly up close!
I think they’d have to build a new hangar there, but even so - the Smithsonian is strictly “Look - Don’t Touch”; there wouldn’t be any touring inside.
+1, I’m only an hour away and would love to see that thing come in on a 747.
"Ice Team" Inspects NASA's Shuttle Atlantis During STS-132 Launch Countdown - YouTube)
This came out today – the STS final inspection team, aka Ice Team, doing a walkaround and thorough inspection of the fueled STS-132 just before the astronauts rode out to climb in. The inspection is to make sure there aren’t chunks of ice or other material that could threaten the safety of the launch. It’s dangerous because fuel and LOX tanks are full, and venting all around them. Volunteer only.
Even looking through the teeny window on my computer, this thing looks unbelievably powerful and huge. And beautiful. And huge. Yeesh.
What a great video. I feel proud, and I’m not even American.
Mental note never to watch this with my two-year-old in the room. She’s obsessed with the shuttle and will insist on watching it over and over and . . . . You get the idea.
It may be America’s Space Shuttle but it’s for the benefit of the world.
On another note, I find it funny that they are using binoculars when I’m thinking, the Shuttle’s right there, don’t think you need them to see it unlike the rest of us.
I suspect they were taking a close-up look for ice forming on the tank.
my 2year old son would also be pleased to have one in our yard 
as his first word was airplane
as his first word was airplane
That’s the way to raise a kid!
before we moved to the States he flew 10 times in 18month between Germany and the States and within Germany and the US so he almost grew up on the Plane and in the airport… now he loves airplanes, boats and of course cars! A real boy though