AT LAST, the perfect Christmas gift for the space buff who has everything: three space shuttles, slightly worn, 32 million km (20 million miles) on the clock between them, one not-so-careful owner. Yours at a knockdown price of $42 million (€30 million) each - post and packing not included.
Nasa plans to sell off its remaining shuttle fleet - Discovery, Atlantisand Endeavourwhich between them have flown 86 missions since 1984 - when the programme is grounded, to raise funds for the cash-strapped agency.
But wealthy wannabe astronauts will be disappointed: their main engines will be removed before the sale, rendering them historically fascinating but astronautically defunct.
The advertised price is just the starting figure, and includes the minimum $6 million cost of stripping each shuttle of hazardous materials and flying it to an airport of the buyer's choice.
Nasa is facing a budget deficit for its next-generation Ares rockets, which it hopes will return astronauts to the moon from 2015. But despite its eagerness to sell, the agency is approaching only educational institutions and science museums, to gauge interest and assess the size of their chequebooks.
Only US citizens will be eligible to buy, and they must promise to display the spacecraft in a climate-controlled, indoor location. "Nasa is keenly aware of the essential value of these key assets to the space programme's rich history," reads a document soliciting ideas for the public display of the orbiters after their retirement.
The six main engines from the last three shuttles will be sold separately for up to $800,000 each.
Previously, Nasa has donated historical space hardware. Saturn rockets, lunar modules and other artefacts are on display at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, and the US Space and Rocket Centre in Alabama.
Five shuttles have flown during the space transportation programme, which began test flights in 1977. Columbiaand Challenger, the first two craft to fly, were destroyed in 2003 and 1986 respectively, with the loss of 14 lives. The last shuttle mission is scheduled for September 2010.
Barack Obama has appointed a team to assess the viability of extending shuttle flights beyond that date, to close the gap until the planned first manned flight of the new Orioncrew capsule and Aresrocket in 2015. - ( Guardianservice)