Up Close With the Enterprise Shuttle At the Intrepid Museum 63
An anonymous reader writes "As you probably remember, the Space Shuttle Enterprise was flown on the back of a 747 to New York City where it was then delivered to the USS Intrepid. As sad as it was to see a space shuttle retired (and NASA take a major step down in the space flight abilities) this was one of the most amazingly geektastic events in recent memory. Now the shuttle is on top of the aircraft carrier's flight deck, living in its very own pavilion. As of tomorrow it will go on display as part of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, but today we got a sneak peek at the shuttle."
Not the best possible home (Score:5, Interesting)
Seen it at Dulles (Score:4, Interesting)
The author is a moron (Score:2, Interesting)
Enterprise was the name given to the ONLY shuttle who has NEVER flown into space. It is the name of the mock shuttle that was used for a few drop tests and immediately sent to the Smithsonian. It has never "retire" because it was never active. It is part of history, but not "space flight" history.
Fond memories (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Seen it at Dulles (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked at Dulles airport in the 80's when the Enterprise was just setting out in the woods at the back of the airport property.
Air & Space at Dulles
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport is the companion facility to the Museum on the National Mall. The building opened in December, 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited on the National Mall. The two sites together showcase the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world.
The James S. McDonnell Space Hangar opened in November 2004 and displays hundreds of famous spacecraft, rockets, satellites and space-related small artifacts. The centerpiece of the space hangar is the Space Shuttle Discovery. Other space artifacts include the Gemini VII space capsule; the Mobile Quarantine Unit used upon the return of the Apollo 11 crew; and a Redstone rocket.
Between the Discovery and the overlook is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet ever built.
Other unique artifacts exhibited in the Boeing Aviation Hangar include:
the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay.
the Boeing 367-80 or Dash 80, the prototype 707, America's first jet airliner.
the Aichi Seiran Japanese WWII bomber, the only remaining Seiran.
the Boeing 307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying Cloud, the first airliner with a pressurized cabin.
a Concorde supersonic airliner.
National Air & Space Museum The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center [si.edu]
Re:Cool pictures but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually - you're both wrong. They're just indentations in the skin that are painted grey - to simulate RC nozzles since the Enterprise was not equipped with an RCS system.
Not quite correct. While they were designed to accept the fairing, they didn't all have a fairing. IIRC there were only three built. One, unique, for Enterprise, and two operational fairings. (Trivia - the fairing could be broken down and carried internally onboard the SCA.)