Now that the space shuttle program is ending, no other place in the world deserves a retired shuttle more than Houston, Texas. Put simply, this decision should be a no-brainer.No logical explanation?
But Houston has been overlooked. Shuttles are going to Los Angeles, Florida, and Washington. The prototype Enterprise is headed to New York City. "We were tremendously surprised," said Susan Marenoff-Zausner, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York after NASA made the announcement. No kidding.
Sadly, it seems partisan politics permeates this announcement. And we are demanding answers.
...Here's our justification for Houston: Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States, visited by nearly 7 million international visitors every year. More than 750,000 people a year visit the Johnson Space Center in Houston to glimpse the history of space exploration. Houston doesn't seek an orbiter because it wants to add a relic to a museum to highlight a marvel of modern engineering. It is more profound than that. To Houston and the men and women of Mission Control, who dedicated their careers to human space flight; it represents a life's work.
We can find no logical explanation for this mind-boggling decision.
New York, our largest city, has averaged more than 45 million visitors per year since 2006. Los Angeles, our second largest city, welcomed about 24 million per year over the same period. Washington, DC, our Nation's capital, welcomed more than 15 million per year and hosts an extraordinary Air & Space Museum. And central Florida has not only been home to the shuttle program but is a major tourist destination. Orlando welcomes more than 45 million visitors per year, and the Kennedy Space Center alone draws 1.5 million visitors per year (twice as many as the Johnson Space Center).
Under other circumstances (i.e., when it doesn't benefit them), Reps. Poe and Olson are foes of government entitlements. Consider Rep. Poe in February
We are long overdue to stop subsidizing the government’s special projects for its special people with money that doesn’t exist.and Rep. Olson in March
We can all find a way to do more with less.What changed in the meantime? The availability of a big fat government goody.
And when they didn't that goody, what did they do? Cast unfounded aspersions and cry politics. Talk about an entitlement mentality.
Sadly, the only "partisan politics" on display here are from these two hypocritical whiners.
