NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday announced the museums where the four space shuttles will go on permanent display once the shuttle fleet retires later this year. The National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, was not one of them. Instead, the Shuttle Atlantis will go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex in Florida; Shuttle Discovery will reside at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia; Shuttle Endeavour will rest at the California Science Center in Los Angeles; and Shuttle Enterprise will relocate from the Udvar-Hazy Center to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York. NASA said the Air Force museum will receive some shuttle artifacts: the nose cap assembly and crew compartment trainer as well as orbital maneuvering system engines. Bolden’s announcement coincided with the 30th anniversary of the first shuttle launch and 50th anniversary of manned space flight. (See also Air Force Museum release)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.