My office got a call yesterday that I'll be doing most the work on and I'm pretty excited about getting started on it ASAP.
The botanist for the CA Science Center remembered us from a past project (a really cool bamboo forest, but anywho) and is requesting our consulting/expertise with designing/engineering the Irrigation for the temporary Endevour display that they're building over there for her at the moment.
Yeah Houston didn't get one but Los Angelos did. They were built in Palmdale which is close by I guess.
O.. K...

don't ditch any more school, kid, seriously.
It's actually Downey, CA (SE corner of the greater Los Angel
es metropolitan area) - the geographical location you're looking for... you know, my fellow aerospace enthusiast/nut, the BIRTHPLACE of this little stunt called the APOLLO PROGRAM.
Houston is an extension of central NASA, the entire space agency, and not the JPL or Rockwell (now Boeing) - the direct contractors and research/design/developing agency of the shuttle program within the larger overwatching government agency.
Not that I don't think Houston would of liked to of gotten one, deserved one, or would of done well with it - but to scoff at CA and suggest we don't deserve one over them... really, huh?... I guess the real tragedy is we're really just a couple shuttles short of how many we were hoping we would ultimately have when this day came.
I think they would of liked to of had one, but much like I think FedEx would like to put on display a static 737 infront of their world HQ too... it also makes as much sence for them (cost and logistics involved) to do it or not, if you'd take a look at the whole picture. NASA will be staying based in Houston probably long after even the next genre of space flight, still doing what NASA does, but who knows where and who will build or participate in the design/development/construction/support of that next genre.
Endevour was the last one built, specifically to replace the Challenger, it seems fitting to me that she ultimately come home to where they were all born to rest...
Do you even know what the JPL is or its
casual relationship to NASA as a whole?