Land The Shuttle
a Campaign
The Tulsa air and space Museum is introducing its campaign to 'Land the Shuttle'. This is a unified effort for the City of Tulsa, all of Oklahoma, and now Spartan to celebrate our aerospace heritage by bringing one of NASA's retired shuttles to TASM.Tremendous support from city, state, and national leaders is already evident. However, there are over 25 cities vying for this shuttle to be delivered to their respective museums. This is where we Spartans can help!
Tulsa's aerospace history is second to none. Tulsa is already serving Oklahoma and regional visitors from surrounding states in air and space education. We stand ready as a community to further NASA's space agenda on a national scale by helping educate visitors to Tulsa and the Air and Space Museum.
Here are some of the primary reasons our city is best for housing the shuttle:
- With the Shuttle being landed here, we will be able to focus more education on topics such as:
- Advanced Materials
- Advanced Medicine
- New Technologies
- Global Positioning Technology
- Satelite Communications
- Satelite Imagry
- History of the Hubble Space telescope and the lessons learned
- International Space Station
- Weather imaging and warning systems
- National Defense and Intelligence
- Tulsa International airport has a 10,000 foot runway that has been used for prior shuttle landings.
- Tulsa's aerospace indusrty is more than capable of handing this new arrival
- NORDAM – the largest composite repair facility in the world.
- American Airlines – the largest Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility in the world.
- Spirit Aerosystems – manufactures aerostructures for the world's largest airplaes, many that are composite structures.
- Visibility – Tulsa Visitors Bureau has annouced that we have exceeded booking goals. This is positive evidence of Tulsa's rapid growth.
- Tulsa's population of 385,000 with a potential of 15 MILLION visitors within a 5 hour drive.
- The success of the BOK Center. Ranked #2 in the counrty for attendance, #7 in the world!
- Six minutes from downtown and across the street from Tulsa Zoo.
- Community acceptance of the project and the opportunity to educate so many about our history as well as our future in aerospace.
Upon the arrival of the shuttle, a new 335,000 square foot, 15 story building will have been constructed specifically to showcase the Space Shuttle Orbiter and other NASA exhibits. The architecture of this building will allow the shuttle to be displayed in either a horizontal or vertical position.
When vertical, a glass elevator will carry visitors to various terraces to see into the bay as well as a catwalk to veiw down into the cockpit. Tulsa residents engineered the bay doors for the shuttle and the frame used to lift the shuttle into launch position. TASM will honor them by using similar components to display the orbiter.
The new buiding will incorporate a Shuttle Convention center with seating for 2,000 visitors and a 10-story LED screen showing spectacular Shuttle launches, landings, Space station dockings, space walks, and other fantastic NASA footage!
Using green construction methods, the shuttle will be protected from the elements by a climate controlled environment with optimun temperature and humidity. Exterior windows will block 99% of UV light. Use of solar panels and geothermal energy will further demonstrate economical energy and conservation.
NASA is considering Tulsa as the location for this retired shuttle based on our rich heritage in aerospace history. It only seems natural that that we preserve the acheivements that the Tulsa workforce has contributed to Amerca's space agenda at TASM.
This is also a tremendous educational opportunity for kids as well as adults. With the volume of K-12 students that visit the museum, TASM is dedicated to science, technology, and engineering education and inspiration.
A new premier facilty showcasing Oklahoma's milestones and acheivements will attract even more visitors. The esimated result is $13M in local tax receipts as well as the creation of nearly 1,300 new jobs!
How can Spartan help? By telling everyone you know! Better yet, telling them we know! Our petition will demonstrate our desire. We neen more than a few signatures... We need a signature from every Spartan student, including friends and family, who believe that the Shuttle Orbiter belongs here. A museum in New York City intends to submit 50,000 signatures, an internet resource states they've already reached 44,000! TASM needs our help and our networks to double or even triple that number to show that we want it more!
For information regarding how to sign the petition, or to obtain petition sheets to gather signatures for the effort, please contact us by email, phone, or directly by asking any Student Council Officer or Representative!
