NASA Lowers Space Shuttle Price

NASA is slashing the asking price for its space shuttles when the fleet is retired later this year, according to the Associated Press.

The space agency was originally asking $42 million per shuttle but has now lowered the price to a mere $28.8 million. The vehicles will go on sale after they finish constructing the International Space Station, scheduled to be later this year.

There are three shuttles for sale.   NASA hopes to sell them to a museum or a school.  The three shuttles for sale are Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour.

The lower price is based on NASA’s estimate of the cost for transporting a shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to a major airport, and for displaying it indoors in a climate-controlled building. The travel cost may vary based on location. NASA has moved up the delivery date to the latter half of 2011, instead of 2012.

Potential customers have until Feb. 19 to put in a request.

As for the space shuttle main engines, those are now free. NASA advertised them in December 2008 for $400,000 to $800,000 each, but no one expressed interest. So now the engines are available, along with other shuttle artifacts, for the cost of transportation and handling.