Post date: Apr 28, 2012 11:46:39 AM
En route to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), the retired shuttle flew at low altitude along the river, giving residents of New York and New Jersey an extraordinary view of the craft.
After three decades, the United States retired its space shuttles last year after building the $100 billion (USD) International Space Station, a 15-nation project. It will begin work on a new generation of spaceships to carry astronauts beyond the station's 240-mile-high (384-km-high) orbit.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise, carried atop a NASA jumbo jet, makes a grand entrance in New York, making a few passes around the city before finally touching down at John F. Kennedy Airport.
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (APRIL 27, 2012) (REUTERS) - The space shuttle Enterprise flew to New York from Washington D.C. on Friday (April 27) piggybacked atop a Boeing 747, making a dramatic flight along the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty and then up the west side of
Manhattan to the delight of observers.
The Enterprise flight took off from Washington Dulles International Airport at about 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). The flight was rescheduled from Wednesday (April 25) due to weather.
A prototype orbiter that was used for atmospheric test flights in the 1970s but never on a space mission, the Enterprise is scheduled later to be moved by barge up the Hudson for display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan.
It will be lifted by crane onto the Intrepid, an aircraft carrier that has been a museum since 1982.
NASA has been flying the shuttles to cities around the nation for display.
On April 19, space shuttle Discovery was flown over Washington D.C. on its way to being displayed at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia.