When the mock Space Shuttle Explorer is moved to Clear Lake from Kennedy Space Center later this year, it will get a new name – and that name will be chosen by Texas children in a statewide contest.

 

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The naming contest is set to start March 23 and continue through May 30 with the Texas Education Association administering it.  Space Center Houston Marketing Director Roger Bornstein says they're setting up a website where children can vote.  Details will be announced soon.

Bornstein says while all that moves forward, they're still working on how they will actually get the shuttle to the Johnson Space Center.  It will be moved by boat, and they have to “determine the depth of the waters the shuttle will travel from Florida to Space Center Houston, and decide if some dredging may be needed."

Space Center Houston President Richard Allen and Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership President Bob Mitchell have been working on those logistics for months now, ever since they learned that Houston will get the mock shuttle, instead of one of the real retired shuttle orbiters.

Both men say they are well aware of the anger and disappointment many people still feel about the way Houston and the Johnson Space Center were passed over when the retiring orbiters were donated to other sites.

They say even a shuttle mock up is better than no shuttle at all.

The mock shuttle is an exact copy of the real orbiters, inside and out, but there's one major difference.  You can walk through it.

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