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Shuttle for sale, one careful owner, low mileage

The search for the ultimate Christmas present is over: NASA has announced plans to sell off its space shuttles when they stop flying in 2010, at a cost of at least $42m (£27m) apiece - postage and packing included.

The advertised price is just the starting figure for any one of the orbiters Discovery, Atlantis or Endeavour, which between them have flown 86 missions into space since 1984. Included is the minimum $6m cost of stripping a shuttle of toxic and other hazardous materials, preparing it for travel and flying it to an airport of the buyer’s choosing.

According to the Guardian, NASA insists it won’t be selling its most prized assets to just anybody. It is approaching only educational institutions, science museums and “other appropriate organisations”. No fiendish evil geniuses have yet expressed any interest.

Annoyingly, the shuttles will only be available for purchase by US citizens.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .