It has been said that when life hands you lemons you should make lemonade.

Of course, there are many kinds of lemonade. There is yellow lemonade, pink lemonade and my personal favorite the Arnold Palmer kind which combines lemonade with one of my drinks of choice iced tea.

As refreshing as an ice cold Arnold Palmer would be right now, this is not a column on summer beverage choices. Instead, this is a column on Space Center Houston getting some gently used aerospace related items that it hopes will prove popular with the locals and tourists alike.

But before we get into the new items coming to town, we need to look at some history that got them in this position.

Once upon a time there was a Space Shuttle that flew missions to low Earth orbit for 30 years.

After flying 135 missions from 1981 to 2011 the Space Shuttle Program ended when “wheels stop” was called in the early morning hours of July 21, 2011.

Upon retirement of the Space Shuttle Program, the surviving orbiters were sent to various museums across the country to inspire future generations on the joys of space travel, etc.

As someone whose own sense of inspiration regarding space travel was emboldened by seeing artifacts of the Apollo Program at the Air and Space Museum and other locations, I am a firm believer in the role that museums play in sparking imagination.

Early on in the process, certain front runners emerged for the final resting places for the vehicles. In the game of shuttle musical chairs there were way more suitors than available Shuttles to go around.

Although five Space Shuttles in total were built, at the time of the Program’s end, only Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour remained since Challenger and Columbia were lost along with their seven member crews in 1986 and 2003, respectively.

It was a given that the Smithsonian