The US space agency NASA is expected to announce the final resting places of the agency's space shuttles Tuesday, on the 30th anniversary of the first-ever shuttle mission.

NASA is retiring the shuttle program later this year, and nearly two dozen museums around the country are vying for the right to display one of the workhorse orbiters, the Fox News reported.

The final announcement will be made by NASA administrator Charles Bolden at 1700 GMT during a ceremony at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

The shuttle program accomplished many outstanding things for this nation, and in 2012 we look forward to moving our retired orbiters to museums and science centers across the country to inspire the next generation of explorers, NASA chief Charlie Bolden said in a statement to Congress last month.

Twenty-one museums and science and visitor centers around the United States are vying for one of NASA's three retiring spaceships. Some of the hot contenders include National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio; Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City; Museum of Flight in Seattle; and Adler Planetarium in Chicago, reports said.

The shuttles are the Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis - important pieces of spaceflight history.

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