§18363 Disposition of Orbiter Vehicles

Summary

When the Space Shuttle program ends under section 18362, the NASA Administrator must decommission any remaining shuttle orbiters using safety and historic‑preservation rules before they become surplus property. NASA must then offer the orbiters for public display and care through a competitive process under the disposition plan in section 613(a) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2008 (42 U.S.C. 17761(a)). Priority goes to applicants that meet the plan’s conditions and that will give the most public value, for example by supporting STEM education or having a historical link to shuttle launch, flight operations, processing, vehicle recovery, or major contributions to human space flight. The Smithsonian Institution, which housed the Space Shuttle Enterprise on October 11, 2010, will decide any new location for Enterprise. The chosen orbiters must be displayed and maintained under agreements made under section 613(a) of that 2008 Act. Congress may appropriate whatever sums are necessary for NASA to carry out these actions. Those funds are in addition to amounts authorized by title I and may be requested by the President as supplemental requirements in the appropriate fiscal years.