Space Shuttle Enterprise Landing At Intrepid Museum
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - The Intrepid Museum will be the proud recipient of the Enterprise space shuttle, Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced Tuesday.
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The Enterprise was built as a test shuttle, and never actually made it into orbit. It piggybacked on various 747s and also was used to practice landings. For more information about the Enterprise, click here.
"We are excited and honored to have been chosen as a home for the Enterprise, and to help perpetuate the legacy of one of our country's greatest technological achievements," Susan Marenoff-Zausner, President of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, said in a statement.
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Museum officials estimate the shuttle will bring in more than one million visitors each year.
As part of its lobbying effort to bring the Shuttle here, the Intrepid released renderings of what their display would look like.
Schumer was a champion of the move, and said the Intrepid is a logical place for a shuttle.
"The shuttle has landed right where it belongs: on the Intrepid," Schumer said. "Putting the shuttle on the Intrepid will ignite the imaginations of millions of young minds, inspiring them to think big and reach for the stars."
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Gillibrand agreed, saying "As the cultural and economic capital of our nation, New York City has the right stuff to create a world class exhibit attracting millions of visitors and school children."
The Intrepid plans to build a glass hangar on neighboring Pier 86 to protect the shuttle from the elements. The enclosure would include multiple platforms to give visitors different perspectives on the shuttle.
It won't come cheap, though: each institution that gets a shuttle has to pay NASA $29 million to cover preparation and transfer costs.
The retiring shuttles are going to the Smithsonian Institution for its branch in northern Virginia, the California Science Center in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.
Would you go see a space shuttle at the Intrepid? Sound off in our comments section.
