NASA to fly Enterprise shuttle over New York City landmarks Friday, April 27
Will be officially retired at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum
Nearly a week and a half after NASA shuttle “Discovery” did a Washington D.C. fly over, another shuttle, the “Enterprise”, will fly past different parts of New York City on its way to its new home: the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
Considered a prototype shuttle, the Enterprise lands the last of 13 captive and free-flight tests here on October 26, 1977.
The Federal Aviation Administration is presently coordinating the flight. Weather pending, it’s scheduled to take place Friday, April 27th between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. EDT.
The plans
Similar to the Discovery, NASA will use its 747 shuttle carrier aircraft to carry the Enterprise.
NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier arrives at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The aircraft-spacecraft duo will fly at a pretty low altitude over New York City; exact route and timing is dependent upon weather and operational constraints right now. If everything goes according to plan, the shuttle will go past key landmarks in the area, including the Statue of Liberty and Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
Once the flight has concluded, the aircraft will touch down at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where the Enterprise will be “demated” from the 747 and put on a barge to be moved by tugboat up the Hudson River to the Intrepid museum in June.
The USS Intrepid will be the new home to the Enterprise shuttle.
Once it’s arrived, the shuttle will be lifted by crane and placed on the boat’s flight deck, where it’ll be on exhibit to the public this summer in a temporary climate-controlled pavilion while Intrepid staff finish working on a permanent exhibit facility.
Discovery’s flight
The Enterprise’s aerial display comes a little less than a week after one of NASA’s other retired space shuttles – the Discovery – performed a pass-over of the nation’s capital on its way to its final resting place: the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
NASA’s Discovery shuttle flies over the nation’s capital on Tuesday April 14, 2012.
Flying at an altitude of approximately 1,500 feet, the Discovery, mounted to a 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, circled four times over the Washington Monument and passed the National Mall over Capitol Hill before landing at Dulles Airport.
The end of an era
These two shuttles are among three total heading to museums. The other one, “Endeavour”, will make its final journey in the fall of this year to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
NASA’s shuttle fleet was decommissioned and the program retired in 2011 after construction was completed on the International Space Station. It was a decision that put to rest 30 years of space flight. The U.S. government ordered the fleet’s retirement in part due to the high cost of maintaining the shuttles.
Unfortunately, this now leaves the country with no means of putting astronauts in orbit. ■
Story and images via: NASA.gov
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