Just in case people don't/can't click on the previous link, this is what it says:
Congressional aides are hooking up tourists from their hometowns with free tickets to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
And from the discussion threads on one website devoted to Disney lovers, they're passing them out like candy.
Disboards.com, identifying itself as the "Largest and friendliest Disney community" has at least two separate threads discussing how to get tickets from their U.S. Representatives and Senators, with feedback on their various success and failure.
One Missouri resident credits his congressman, Republican Rep. Roy Blunt, with getting their family tickets. Another thanks Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon while another name checks Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan.
An aide for Blunt said that the Congressman’s tour directors call the government affairs liaison at Kennedy Space Center whenever a constituent asks for free tickets, which cost $38 for adults and $28 for kids from 3-11 and includes IMAX space movies, all exhibits and shows for two days.
Those postings prompted various reactions from kudos to "How could you"? As in: How could you waste your congressman’s time and take money away from NASA?
One poster pointed out that the congressional aides are doing all the footwork. And another tourist said they pay taxes to finance NASA so why shouldn't they get a freebie?
Those tickets aren't supposed to be passed out to any tourist who wants them, said Allard Beutel, a spokesman for NASA. They’re supposed to be given to members of Congress, visiting dignitaries, aides and other VIPs that NASA would like to get a better working knowledge of what goes on at Cape Canaveral.
"To be perfectly blunt, you are trying to make sure that whoever getting that info is someone who’s voting on your programs," he said.
Under the terms of its contract with Delaware North, which runs the visitor complex, NASA gets 2,500 complimentary tickets a year to hand out at its discretion, Beutel said. It's been written into their contract since April 2000, when the center started charging admission, he said.
NASA monitors the distribution of tickets to make sure there are enough to go around for a full year, he said. But once NASA gives the tickets away, Beutel said, the space agency has no control over how they’re used.
I did mention I was looking for Kennedy Space Center when I sent my cell phone number...we'll see what happens!
