Sign the Petition to Bring Enterprise to Dayton

There is a petition on WhiteHouse.gov to request that the Obama Administration reconsider its decision to locate the STS Orbiter Enterprise in New York. As noted in the audit of the NASA selection process for locating the STS Orbiters, Dayton was tied for third place (four surviving Orbiters to place) but for a "cut and paste" error.

When we showed this chart to members of the Recommendation Team, they informed us that it contained a significant error – the chart reflects 5 points for “Transportation Risk/Effort” for the Air Force Museum when the site should have received 10 points in this category. Team members said that they had consistently rated the Museum a low risk for the anticipated difficulty of transporting an Orbiter because the airport was just 5 miles away on an adjacent property. The Team attributed the mistake, which they said was unintentional, to a “cut and paste” error made during finalization of the chart. However, correction of this error results in a total of 85 points for the Air Force Museum and results in a three-way tie among it, the Intrepid, and the Kennedy Visitor Complex. Because this fact could have affected the Administrator’s placement decision, we informed him of the error and asked for his response. Bolden told us that while it was disappointing that this error had not been caught prior to his final decision, had he been informed of a tie he would have made the same decision. He said this was 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.

This has been in the news recently because of shenanigans by the museum in New York that indicate it may not have been as ready to accept an Orbiter as it represented to NASA.