Saturday, January 16, 2010

Charlie's Used Shuttle Sale

OK, the header isn't quite accurate - NASA's Administrator Charles Bolden is not personally manning a used-Shuttle lot - but the shuttles are for sale after they make their final flights. Each originally cost a billion-plus (specifically, building Endeavour to replace the lost Challenger cost $1.7B). Now they are a mere $28.8M. Several large museums are expected to put in bids for orbiters Atlantis and Endeavour, while Discovery is already ticketed for the NASM. And here's a real bargain. The massive Space Shuttle Main Engines, the costliest, highest-performing rocket engines ever built, are available for free if you can transport and reassemble them. Each one weighs a mere 3.2 metric tons.

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