spacetoday.net: Report clears NASA shuttle selection process

Posted: Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 8:31 AM ET (1231 GMT)
STS-133: landing (NASA)

A report released this week by NASA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) concluded the agency acted properly when it made its decision earlier this year to award shuttle orbiters to four museums. The OIG report found that NASA acted according to federal law, and was not influenced by the White House or other politicians, when it awarded orbiters to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York. That decision was criticized by some, including officials in Houston and Ohio who felt slighted. The OIG report did uncover an error in scoring that would have put the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, in a tie with New York and Florida, but NASA administrator Charles Bolden told OIG investigators that the correct scoring would not have changed his decision.