DAYTON, Ohio (AP) – More than a dozen former astronauts want NASA to send one of its space shuttles into retirement at an Air Force museum in Ohio.

In a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., 18 ex-astronauts say Air Force work was instrumental to making the shuttle program possible. They’re urging that one of the spacecraft be placed on permanent display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton when the shuttle program ends this year.

Signers of the May 11 letter include Kathryn Sullivan, America’s first woman to walk in space, and Charles Duke Jr., a member of the Apollo 16 mission to the moon.

The Smithsonian in Washington is getting the shuttle Discovery. NASA is still deciding where to send its two others, Endeavour and Atlantis.

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Information from: Dayton Daily News, http://www.daytondailynews.com

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AP-CS-05-24-10 0700EDT