@djsho: Makes me miss my 91 I sold

Yes, and in different languages!

It's obvious the driver did not have a Cobb short-throw shifter

Wired has an interesting article from Feb. 2011 wherein the author explains that some small-mid size US companies are taking manufacturing back to the US from China for a variety of reasons, including difficulty in overseeing, from such a great distance, what their Chinese manufacturers are (or aren't) doing: [www.wire…

NICE prior posting tie in!!

As a token of my appreciation to Mr. Berk, please accept a box of little brown cholocate rings from Joya

In the words of the immortal Buddy Hackett:

Houston deserves a rocket bumper car ride!

Note to GM: Make the grille bowtie smaller.

OK but can we just agree that its better to keep a vehicle in a climate controlled storage facility than outside exposed to the elements?

maybe, but the smog certainly isn't helping

NIBBLES

And it's been left outside to rot! Smithsonian FTW

I am curious as to what kind of spacecraft archivists and restorers Houston has that can give proper care and treatment to a spacecraft of this kind.

The number of foreign visitors does not include people coming from Mexico or Canada

OK looking at tourism statistics from US Department of Commerce it looks like NASA is picking tourism over space heritage. Such preference would not only maximize the number of people who get to see the orbiters, but also tourism dollars generated can pay for the $30+ million fee NASA is charging. From a 2009 US DOC…

One of NASA's requirements to receive a shuttle is an enclosed hangar to store it. Not sure whether that applies to Enterprise, but if so, I don't know how/where the Intrepid will build one. The Concorde they have is exposed to the elements, and the Enterprise is way to large to fit in the hangar deck.

Wow you should hear (see) the bitching in the other forums by Dayton residents about getting stiffed and how they deserved a shuttle too! Wright brothers! WAAAAH!

FWIW when I was at the intrepid museum last year they had a huge display urging visitors to write their congressmen to send one of the shuttles there.

Politics and tourism dollars at play here . . .