Houston Got Snubbed From Getting a Shuttle

4/15 UPDATE: A reader mentioned that the rocket in Houston has been restored and on display inside a building since 2007. I stand corrected. Thank you, rds_tx.

4/14: I should have written about this on Tuesday after NASA announced the recipients of the retired Space Shuttles--Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour--but I didn't, and now I'm regretting it. Why? Because as soon as I heard that Houston, an integral city to the space shuttle program, didn't get one of the shuttles, I knew they would cry foul.

This is understandable. There's thousands of people that live in the Houston area that for the past 30 years have been part of what is and was the shuttle program. That's where Mission Control is located, and where astronauts have trained for some of the most important missions mankind has ever taken on.

But there's a problem.

If Houstonians want to know why they got snubbed from one of the most complex vehicles ever to have been developed, they don't need to look too far. They just need to go right down the corner to their very own Space Center to see what the problem is. It is where you have your Saturn V rocket displayed!

Now, I've never visited Johnson Space Center, but I know people who have, and I've seen the pictures. They have on display their Saturn V rocket out in a field, uncovered, for all visitors to see, and for the hot Sun, the Houston humidity, their rainy season, their cold winters and the occasional snow, and the once-in-a-blue-Moon hurricanes to beat, batter, and rust away the beautiful rocket the Saturn V rocket is.

If the space shuttle is one of the most complex vehicles to ever have been developed, then the Saturn V rocket is arguably the most complex. After all, the rocket was developed specifically for the purpose to take people to the Moon!

So, I'm sorry, Houston and Texas politicians. But you have only yourselves to blame for getting snubbed from getting a Shuttle. It's right there on the field of your very own space center. If you wanted a Shuttle, you should have taken care of the Saturn V rocket. If you didn't have an idea of how to do it, you guys should have placed a visit to your counterparts here in Florida.

If you don't have a place to put your crown jewel--the Saturn V rocket--then where did you want Charlie Bolden to think you were going to put the Shuttle at?