Discovery's transition from space shuttle to museum object is not just a bittersweet historical moment but a fascinating opportunity to think about what it means for something to "belong in a museum." Certainly Discovery is not just any other object, and its arrival at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center was celebrated in a way that marks its status as a national symbol, maybe even a national treasure. I have found myself wondering whether this space shuttle (and NASA's program) was always so cherished, or whether the circumstances and ceremony surrounding its handover to the Smithsonian have turned it into something more precious. Not that I think it doesn't deserve the awe it's been receiving. I was one of the thousands of people who stood outside to see it fly over DC and as I watched it circle the Capitol, I found myself grinning and tearing up and feeling emotions that I never thought a space shuttle would make me feel. It really is something special.
But there is, of course, an element of sadness: NASA's space shuttle program is over, it is literally the end of an era, and Discovery will never fly again. There is no better institution to become the space shuttle's caretaker than the Smithsonian, but that is because its useful life is over: museums are where things go to die, to put it dramatically. Discovery's job now is to be on display as a symbol and as proof of the space shuttle program which is now relegated to history. As wonderful as it is that this fascinating spacecraft will now be accessible to anyone who visits the museum, its presence there is a reminder of things that are finished. I think that same pathos can apply to much of what museums collect and display, although fortunately I don't think its what most curators emphasize or what most people dwell on. Museums can be, but shouldn't be, mausoleums.
Bittersweet as it is, though, the handover of the retired shuttles to museums is a great thing for those institutions. Museums are not just repositories of the "dead," but of the real. Seeing Discovery as it is after almost thirty years of service, battered and grimy, speaks to the amazing fact that we've been sending people into space - that this very shuttle, that anyone can now walk right up to and look at and photograph, has gone into space! Amazing! (The squeaky-clean Enterprise, formerly at the Udvar-Hazy, was pretty awesome to look at, but as a test vehicle it doesn't feel as much like the "real thing." Sorry, Intrepid Museum.)
