On Wednesday, the retired space shuttle Enterprise was moved to the deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which is actually an old World War II aircraft carrier floating on the Hudson River. NASA decided last year that its space shuttle fleet would be retired to various locations and that Enterprise would be coming to New York after being at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., since 1985. It made the trip to New York in April by being piggy-backed on top of a Boeing 747 Jumbo jet. It was parked at JFK airport until last week, when it was lifted by a crane onto a barge, and pulled by a tug boat down the Hudson.
Enterprise never flew in space, as it was designed without certain necessary engines or shields that make spaceflight possible, but was constructed to perform test flights within Earth’s atmosphere. The shuttle construction was complete in 1976. It was named Enterprise after fans of the popular television show “Star Trek” wrote letters to President Ford campaigning for it to be named after the TV show’s Starship Enterprise spaceship. He was convinced, and instead of being named "Constitution", it was named after the fictional ship captained by James T. Kirk.
According to MSNBC, "the Enterprise will be displayed on the Intrepid's flight deck for now, but the museum is planning to build a permanent display home to showcase the shuttle prototype and enhance its other space-related exhibits and educational curriculum." Rumor has it that may be sometime in July.
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