Hurricane Sandy Damages Space Shuttle Enterprise 126
SchrodingerZ writes "The now decommissioned Space Shuttle Enterprise appears to have been damaged by super storm Sandy, as it blew through New York City. The shuttle is currently on display on the deck of the USS Intrepid, as part of the Sea, Air, and Space museum on pier 86. The storm tore through the shuttle's inflatable pavilion which housed it, leaving a deflated mess over the space craft. It appears that the pavilion has damaged the vertical stabilizer on the tail of the craft. The museum has yet to comment on the situation. This is not the first time the Enterprise has been damaged however. As it was being towed through Jamaica Bay en route to its new home in Manhattan, the barge was hit by wind and forced the spacecraft's wingtip into a railroad bridge pylon ."
WELL LET'S NOT PUT A MAN IN SPACE WITH IT !! (Score:5, Funny)
That would be dangerous !!
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Perfect storm. (Score:2)
If a large storm went north along the coast without actually going over land, would it not continue gathering energy?
"How high's the water, Mama?"
Re:Water temperature (Score:2)
So we'll need some Climate Change before the arctic has to fear.
Oh my... (Score:5, Funny)
After this, I bet she'll never fly again. ;o(
Kahn (Score:3, Funny)
Too bad they don't name hurricanes after men - like Kahn.
Headline: "Kahn damages Enterprise. Caretaker is quoted as screaming, 'Kaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhnnnn!'"
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>Too bad they don't name hurricanes after men - like Kahn.
What?
Hurricanes have had names from both sexes by the National Weather Service since 1978. Only between 1953 and 1978 were female names the only names given to hurricanes.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml [noaa.gov]
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BMO
You must get really tired of all those people (Score:4, Funny)
You must get really tired of all those people going "wooosh" at you. Wooosh, WOOOSH!
Enterprise Kahn.
Google it, then hit ebay to see if you can score a sense of humor. British made ones are the best. Even if they put such a drain on your system that your taste buds and sex drive will decline. But at least you will get a geek joke on a geek site.
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I got the joke. The premise was just dumb, because the only way it'd be funny is if the policy of pre-78 was continued
You want to see something funny?
Go here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJmP7PcaUw [youtube.com]
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BMO
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Re:Kahn (Score:4, Insightful)
The most devastating ones always have female names, go figure :-)
Tell that to Isaac and Andrew.
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80's and 00's NASA officials have assured us she is safe for re-entry.
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Sure she will. Just loosen whatever is holding her down to the deck of the Intrepid before the next hurricane.
Re:Aluminum (Score:2)
You'd think sometime since 1942, they'd have brought thought tech to market.
And... (Score:2)
that's why we can't have nice things.
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Seriously, the idea behind a museum is to allow people to see things but at the same time to preserve them. A carrier deck is not exactly the best place for it.
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To be fair, they're building a new facility to house her, off the deck of the carrier. I don't believe it's going to be ready until springtime, so they had assuming, based on past performance, that they'd be able to protect her from the weather within the confines of the inflatable structure. They're actually pretty strong, but even the best made bubble wasn't holding up to that storm. Hopefully they're able to repair her tail and get the final structure completed quickly.
Re:Batten down (Score:2)
A couple extra guy wires might have helped.
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Not likely. While the bubbles do have an internal structure to them, it's not rigid, and only designed to provide a small amount of additional strength. They're really held up by internal air pressure, and it's likely that the bubble was punctured by debris, thus letting the pressure escape and collapsing the bubble. The only way that guy wires would have helped is if the enclosure was a tent, rather than a bubble. If it was a tent, the fabric would be secured to structural elements, most likely aluminu
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A carrier deck at the edge of a 2000 mile wide open ocean well known for 10-15 hurricanes every year.
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A carrier deck is not exactly the best place for it.
But it really doesn't get much better than that on Earth.
Re:SO what!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
It costs $24 _per person_ just to get in to the Intrepid Museum. I do not know if they charge a rider for the shuttle tour.
Keep in mind, every single museum exhibit at this place was paid for with money borrowed on behalf of the taxpayer. Now the taxpayer is paying again for the privilege of laying eyes on what what built using loans their great grandchildren never consented to, but nonetheless will be paying back under threat of force.
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I would imagine that the $24/head is to pay for the museum and staff, not to cover the cost of the exhibits. Not a big difference if the items were donated, came from the taxpayer or stolen from other civilizations.
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Or to cover the rent/mortgage in downtown Manhattan.
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That would be part of the costs I mentioned.
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You have to pay rent on the Hudson River?
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It costs a tremendous amount of money to keep the exhibits up. When the USS Missouri was dry docked for painting and repairs a couple years ago, it cost more than $18m. These museums rarely receive money from the government for upkeep, unless it's part of the Smithsonian (it's free to visit Discovery) so they're forced to charge something for maintenance and developing the tours. I was happy to pay to visit the Missouri, the North Carolina, and the Yorktown so that these monuments to American ingenuity a
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Keep in mind, every single museum exhibit at this place was paid for with money borrowed on behalf of the taxpayer. Now the taxpayer is paying again for the privilege of laying eyes on what what built using loans their great grandchildren never consented to, but nonetheless will be paying back under threat of force.
Sounds reasonable then to charge for services offered. Unless, of course, you think we should pay for this as well with the same flawed tricks.
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Keep in mind, every single museum exhibit at this place was paid for with money borrowed on behalf of the taxpayer. Now the taxpayer is paying again for the privilege of laying eyes on what what built using loans their great grandchildren never consented to, but nonetheless will be paying back under threat of force.
If you want to preserve Intrepid or the space shuttle Enterprise, you have only three choices:
You can fund restoration and maintenance through taxes, tax-deductible charitable grants and contributions or on-site admission fees and concessions.
There is no free lunch.
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One more reason why they should have sent one to the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH. The shuttle would have been in an enclosed, climate controlled, solid hangar in a region with a rare tornado, but no other natural disasters. In addition admission to the Air Force Museum is FREE (if you count paying taxes, then no additional cost).
Instead now all of the shuttles are in areas where there are hurricanes or earthquakes to damage them. Not to mention all of them are near the coasts which kind of screws Amer
Re:Of all the places that got a shuttle, (Score:5, Informative)
New York was the least deserving. I'm not knocking New York itself, but the one at the Smithsonian isn't all that far away and they don't have a Space Center there.
The only reason New York has a shuttle is it was the shuttle that was left after all the deserving blue states got one. Johnson deserved to get the Enterprise at the least, one of the others by any real world measurement of the situation. Texas is a red state, and granted Houston is more likely to get a hurricane than New York most of the time, but the partisan politics of the Enterprise sitting there at all is sickening. I don't care what your political leanings are, the obvious partisanship in the decision is as wrong as Google's current single sided issue promotion on their resources.
You misspelled Dayton, where they know how to take care of historical aircraft and don't leave them out to rust in the sun, like Texas did.
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You mean like these?
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=National+Museum+of+the+United+States+Air+Force,+Spaatz+Street,+Dayton,+OH&hl=en&ll=39.783951,-84.108362&spn=0.005684,0.008256&sll=40.365277,-82.669252&sspn=8.15936,16.907959&oq=dayton+air+force+muse&t=h&hq=National+Museum+of+the+United+States+Air+Force,+Spaatz+Street,+Dayton,+OH&radius=15000&z=18 [google.com]
I do have to agree though. Dayton would have been a much better place to store the shuttle than on the deck of an aircraft c
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I personally imagine the USAF having one as a bit of an insult: "Hey guys, I know we took this program away from you but here, show it off any way!" The Enterprise is housed on a World War II aircraft carrier alongside the only tourable nuclear submarine (USS Growler) and the transonic Concorde as well as aircraft from all branches of the military and a Soyuz capsule. A Sea, Air, and Space museum sounds like a perfect place for a shuttle.
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Not to mention Ohio is home to more famous astronauts than any other state. Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Jim Lovell just to name a few.
Re:Of all the places that got a shuttle, (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure you'll have some clever rebuttal, but I'll say it right here: I won't be bothered to read them.
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other than north korea, which country is different?
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If you have a system of proportional representation, rather than "New York is a blue state, because the result was 63% voted blue and 36% voted red, so we have one blue guy who gets 31 votes", it'd be "New York is a mostly-blue state, represented by two blue guys with 21 votes and a red one with 12 votes, plus [an independent?] with 1 vote". (The independent only gets in if they have enough votes, not simply as the left-over.)
(There are many variations on how this is implemented, I just made one up without
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It's a mater of constitutionality. The constitution is the supreme law of the land, and to change it you need 2/3ds of both houses to pass it, the President to sign it, and it has to be ratified by 2/3rds of the state legislatures. Not an easy thing to do.
In 2000, Bush lost the popular vote, but won the Presidency. We don't directly vote for the President, we vote for electors. For anyone to push through an amendment, ypu would have to have an incredible occurrance, like a popular vote landslide that was un
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Like you?
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I don't know why you assumed I would have some clever rebuttal. You bring up a good point. Government policy is dictated by a slim popular majority in most cases, and that's a huge problem we have - it's really "tyranny of the middle," since the "independent" swing voters are really who decide our elections.
The point I was agreeing with was that there are some places that, solely due to their political and financial clout, get preferential treatment from government in the placement of educational and enrich
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I take it you're not black, gay, or a woman. People do still get killed in the US for being "other", but most people who aren't "other" don't tend to notice that it's still happening.
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I take it you're not black, gay, or a woman. People do still get killed in the US for being "other", but most people who aren't "other" don't tend to notice that it's still happening.
Or white and male. I think the disturbing paradox of this situation in the US is the considerable discrimination by the people supposedly aware of and fixing the problem.
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You won't be bothered to read the responses because you're an asshole.
We Americans spend our time squabbling over who is best on dancing with the stars and shit like that. Politics is just a diversion.
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As to the red/blue thing, it's pretty much the divide between rural and urban populations. And almost everyone has some sort of rural and urban population with the same sort of division.
Can you not think of any other reason? (Score:1)
"we wonder why education in red states is so lacking in comparison"
No we don't. Republicans are ideologically against public funding, that includes education. The red states do badly because they're starved of money except for a few private schools that are very well funded. If only brains and money coincided it would be fine, but sadly some times the smart people who would benefit most from education are the ones who can't afford private schools.
Plus it doesn't help when Republicans on the science committe
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Actually, the underpinnings of science are supposed to be mathematics, the repeatable experiment, and aristotolian loogic, as modified by Euler.
To try to repin science to the big bang theory, embryology, and whatnot, sounds more like ...
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The answer is population density. Wonder no more! More people get to benefit from things that exist in high population density areas. Sorry, but if this was out in BFE Mississippi it wouldn't be as useful.
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What really irks me is that my SSN is valuable at all. If it was used simply as an ID number for the soc sec system, it would be of little use to hackers. Instead it is used as a national ID number
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That's pretty funny. I am from SC, and educated, and I don't feel hostility from the "ignorant."
Oh, and by the way, the phrase you're looking for is "bald-faced lie," not "bold faced lie."
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Fwiw, the military has a program by which you, too, can have a free fighter jet, x-plane, battleship, tank, or whatnot. However, you do have to pay for its installation, and you do have to agree to pay for its upkeep as a museum piece, in respectable condition. I suspect that the Enterprise was given to NYC under those same terms, and--yes--they have already violated them, though their efforts were probvbly best spent saving lives.
I don't think there is any favoritism; rather, if there is a difference bet
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Actually of the museums that were finalists for getting a shuttle but didn't get one the Museum of Flight in Seattle had the best curation plan and the best financial plan. They had an indoor climate controlled gallery next to an airfield that was "Shuttle ready". They actually scored better than the Intrepid did and NASA admits it screwed up the scoring (putting too much weight on metro area population).
But that is water over the seawall as they say, unless NASA decides to take Enterprise back NY will get
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You mean like this place http://goo.gl/maps/5pUhY [goo.gl] that is built on a runway? With facilities large enough to house a B52 with room to spare? http://airpigz.com/storage/2010-december/Air_Force_Museum_B-52.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1292113924915 [airpigz.com]
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The only reason New York has a shuttle is it was the shuttle that was left after all the deserving blue states got one.
Washington state is a blue state and the Museum of Flight in Seattle tried to get a shuttle, but got the full fuselage trainer instead.
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I have heard it said the USA has historically had a policy/mindset that rather escalates and rebuilds, instead of prevent disaster.
There just might be some truth in it.
I don't know if USA construction costs differ much - but i'd rather build my house out of concrete and stone, make sure it can deal with the sea level, and choose representatives/governors/mayors/politicians that protect me from disaster. (besides creating and maximizing opportunities that likely benefit me)
Dutch companie have proposed solutions (Score:2)
The Dutch are perfectly willing to help the US build solutions. They were willing before Katrina and Sandy and they are willing after. After Katrina, the dutch saved New Orleans from further disaster, will New York be the same?
And if you think the US is stupid for waiting until AFTER a disaster to do something, http://www.deltawerken.com/89 [deltawerken.com]
The Delta Works weren't started until AFTER the flood.
Humans are lazy.
Man, who designed that thing? (Score:4, Funny)
A piece of FOAM can rip through the wing, killing everyone on board and completely destroying the shuttle.
A piece of inflatable vinyl tarp can damage the vertical stab by simply falling onto it.
Damn... I'd hate to see what would happen if someone scowled at it harshly.
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Obviously it's not made to be hit, it's made to handle thousands of degrees of heat while travelling at Mach 25 while keeping the puny mammals inside relatively safe.
Let's see anything that can take hits from bridge pylons and storms do that.
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Let's see anything that can take hits from bridge pylons and storms do that.
Well technically the bridge pylon didn't hit the shuttle. The shuttle hit the bridge.
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Depends upon your frame of reference, I guess.
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The Intrepid's reputation with curation and preservation is shameful. So many other museums like the Air Force Museum in Dayton and the Museum of Flight in Seattle do a much better job with their priceless artifacts.
Given their poor record the Intrepid should not have even been a finalist for a shuttle.
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So many other museums like ... the Museum of Flight in Seattle do a much better job with their priceless artifacts.
Yes and no. There have been numerous complaints about the Museum of Flight's treatment of the planes, including the Concorde, left out in the lot next to the building built for the Shuttle. Also, someone managed to get into their Concorde and cut out the captain's hat that was wedged in the spot in the instruments that expands open in flight during the last time that it flew.
Given their poor record the Intrepid should not have even been a finalist for a shuttle.
When it was announced that Intrepid got one, I was surprised.
You think they'll build another one? (Score:4)
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They've already doubled up on some letters. E.g. Challenger and Columbia or Enterprise and Endeavour. As such, I don't think that the number of remaining letters is a very useful consideration. Instead, look at the budget, the desire, and the politics. They'll clearly show you that another shuttle will not be coming anytime soon.
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He meant Enterprise-A, Enterprise-B, etc.
Space Shuttle? (Score:2)
"The now decommissioned Space Shuttle Enterprise appears to have been damaged by super storm Sandy"
Enterprise sat in the Udvar-Hazy center for almost 20 years before being sent to NYC. I don't know when it was officially decommissioned, but it has been effectively so for some time as NASA handed it over to the Smithsonian in 1985.
Enterprise was never a space shuttle. It was a glider/test platform that was going to be refitted to be a space shuttle. But that was more expensive than building Endeavour. Enterprise never had engines, and it was covered in fiberglass, not thermal tiles. In the end it was che
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Nit, because refitting Enterprise proved more expensive* than planned, STA-099 was refitted instead and became OV-99 Challenger. Endeavour was assembled from structural spares to replace Chal
"now decommissioned"? (Score:1)
Awesome job.... (Score:1)
Good! (Score:2)
NYC didn't deserve to have a shuttle in the first place. The Enterprise should have gone to Houston.
USS Enterprise (Score:2)
The carrier rather than the orbiter is reported to be decommissioned. Next three years will be to remove nuclear reactor and related items, then the vessel will be chopped and sold for scrap. I'd not be surprised if there is a group leading an effort to preserve this first nuclear aircraft carrier. I can see it now, William Shatner hired to promotions for fundraising, "I was the first commander of this ship!" Yeah, I know he's an actor, not a Navy officer (but some of his fans will say, "Of course he did, h
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To be fair, the Mona Lisa is also a piece of mostly carbon and a lot of poisonous metal.
It's also not really that beautiful, and lives more on its reputation than its actual appearance.
And we have technology today to accurately replicate its "beauty" and give the viewer the exact same experience viewing it as they have today, so really, your arguments for not giving the Enterprise any sentimental value can be applied to any "art" you choose.
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That "more important news" is on other sites. If you came to /. looking for that news, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?
Re:SO WHAT ?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
You are comparing apples to pears. "Mona Lisa" is a chunk of dried paint and canvas that, granted, had its part in the history of art. Being a chunk of crusty paint and canvas, however, it can be replaced; and if it were to go lost, not many humans would spill tears over it. Enterprise, on the other hand, is a work of breakthrough engineering, science, and exploration, held dear by many more humans than said chunk of crusty dried paint on canvas. Moreover, Enterprise was crafted by many indivituals in a cooperative feat of engineering not seen since Apollo, many of those engineers being unsung geniuses who went on to further humanity through their engineering, which cannot be said for Leonardo Da Vinci, now long dead and no longer contributing to humanity. Last but not least, I do believe that you are a troll.
*slap*
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BMO
Re:SO WHAT ?!? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Can you prove you are not one ?*
Can you prove that you did not make a post just to be a contrarian jerk?
Seriously.
The Enterprise is on topic for this page. Damage to the Enterprise *is* news for nerds. The Mona Lisa is not unless an article is discussing the chemical composition of the paints that is scientifically interesting. The burned out neighborhood of Breezy Point is not. Your first post should be modded into oblivion as flamebait/troll if not your second one.
And calling you out as a troll is not
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So by your thinking it was worthwhile that all those years ago someone thought to save the Mona Lisa so that people could enjoy it today... but it's not worthwhile to save Enterprise today because you don't care... right?
You've demonstrated nothing aside from your arrogance.
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Memorial to Hurricane Sandy (Score:2)
The variable in question being the widely known (but little mentioned) fact that New York would get a devastating Hurricane at some time in the future.
Still true.
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