Shuttle flight test orbiter Enterprise, faint in the skies behind the Statue of Liberty, makes its way to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport atop NASA's Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Photo Credit/Bill Ingalls/NASA Photo
Enterprise, NASA’s flight test orbiter, reached New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday, where it will remain for several weeks, awaiting a barge ride up the Hudson River to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
Before its ferry flight from Dulles International Airport in suburbanVirginia came to an end at JFK, NASA’s Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft circled New York City area landmarks, thrilling spectators in the buildings and on the streets below.
Actor Leonard Nimoy, Dr. Spock in the original Star Trek television series, was among the luminaries on hand to greet Enterprise.
After its barge ride, Enterprise will be moved to the deck of the World War II era aircraft carrier Intrepid for public display.
That leaves two orbiters yet to reach their new homes for public display.
Orbiter Endeavour remains at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center inCape Canaveral, Fla. Sheltered in Orbiter Processing Facility, Bay 2, Endeavour is being prepared for a fall cross country Shuttle Carrier Aircraft flight to Los Angeles, Calif., where the the orbiter will take up residence at the California Science Center.
Endeavour in Orbiter Processing Facility, Bay 2, at the Kennedy Space Center, where the ship is undergoing preparations for a fall trip to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Photo Credit/NASA Photo.
Atlantis, not far away in OPF, Bay 1, will take a much shorter trip to the Kennedy Visitor Center near Titusville, Fla., for public display in 2013.
The first of the orbiters to leave KSC, Discovery, made headlines as it made its way to Dulles and the Smithsonian Institution’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center atop the Boeing 747 on April 17.