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A Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, flies over New York City carrying the Space Shuttle Enterprise to its final destination in April 2012. Photo by Tiffany Moy.

Space shuttle Enterprise goes on display in New York

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
The Space Shuttle Enterprise, as seen from the offices of LiveAuctioneers.com, was originally named the 'Constitution.' NASA officials changed the name to 'Enterprise' after Star Trek fans organized a letter-writing campaign to have it renamed. Photo by Tiffany Mamone.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise, as seen from the offices of LiveAuctioneers.com, was originally named the ‘Constitution.’ NASA officials changed the name to ‘Enterprise’ after Star Trek fans organized a letter-writing campaign to have it renamed. Photo by Tiffany Mamone.

NEW YORK (AFP) – A New York aerospace museum opened the space shuttle Enterprise to the public Thursday.

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum has installed the space shuttle on the deck of the aircraft carrier Intrepid, a museum facility docked at a pier on Manhattan’s West Side.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden and museum president Susan Marenoff-Zausner presided over the exhibit’s opening ceremony Thursday, joined by three of Enterprise’s original four pilots.

The ceremony launched the museum’s five-day space festival, with exhibits and educational demonstrations to usher in its latest acquisition.

NASA retired Enterprise, a prototype completed in 1976, from its nearly four-decade tenure as a test craft this year, after its flight over the Manhattan skyline, past the Statue of Liberty to New York’s JFK airport in April.

In June, the craft was transported from the airport to the museum by barge.

Space shuttle Discovery was flown to Washington last April. Discovery is open to the public at a headquarters of the National Air and Space Museum in nearby Virginia.

Space shuttle Endeavor is now on view at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and space shuttle Atlantis is available at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Fla.

 

 

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

The Space Shuttle Enterprise, as seen from the offices of LiveAuctioneers.com, was originally named the 'Constitution.' NASA officials changed the name to 'Enterprise' after Star Trek fans organized a letter-writing campaign to have it renamed. Photo by Tiffany Mamone.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise, as seen from the offices of LiveAuctioneers.com, was originally named the ‘Constitution.’ NASA officials changed the name to ‘Enterprise’ after Star Trek fans organized a letter-writing campaign to have it renamed. Photo by Tiffany Mamone.