Space Shuttle in NYC.

[VINMAN]

Heres a few shots I took this morning. Had my camera on the wrong setting, so sorry they arent clearer.

Coming into NY harbor over the Verrazzano Bridge.



Soon as it passed over the bridge..




Heading toward Manhattan and up the Hudson with a T-38 escort.

[VINMAN]

Heading back down and flying over the Staue of Liberty to JFK airport.

Very cool to see and sad at the same time..

[pete3799]

Wow
Great pictures.

[mikester]

Wow!

[GH85Carrera]

Nice photos.

Back in the early days of the Shuttle program it landed here in the Oklahoma City area at Tinker AFB. Thousands of people wasted a lot of film shooting horrible pictures with crappy cameras. They would bring them to our photolab and want a "big" print like a 8x10 or even 16 x20. We would tell them it is just going to be a big blurry blob. We had a few shots done by a professional with the proper equipment. We would just pull out one of the stock prints and most of the customers bought one of those because it was so much better.

The photographer got a piece of each sale and we sold a lot of prints and the customer got a nice print cheaper than us printing their crappy image.

It is just amazing how much photography has changed in the last 30 years.

[VINMAN]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

[Brillo]

Cool! Thanks for sharing. Agreed that it is sad.

[island911]

So cool, and so sad, at the same time. Bittersweet.

Seems it's marking the end of an era. ...an era of backbone and drive.

. . . and now we push forward with divisiveness, political correctness, and entitlement. -damn.

[UconnTim97]

Great pics. Thanks for posting them!

[syncroid]

Very cool Vinny!

[BReif61]

Great pics!

It will be quite an odd sight, seeing the space shuttle on an aircraft carrier in the middle of NYC.

[Skytrooper]

Well, now I guess both 747's will be sitting on the tarmac at Evergreen in Marana, AZ

[rattlsnak]

i just saw the another one going into DC last week.. really cool...

[Schumi]

I saw the morning news had a live bit on when it was flying in. They were talking a lot about it...


but never heard them once mentioned that this was Enterprise...


Enterprise never went to space. It was the first mule, but wasn't ever fitted with real tiles or engines.


So yea, it's cool (almost more unique than the others) but I thought that warranted mentioning.

But no, the newscasters spent more time talking about how those 'fighter pilots' were probably there to provide 'security' .... with terrorism and all... (uh... it's a T-38 trainer....)




it was pathetic.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I have to agree with the above. Yes, the pictures are cool and everything, but the reality is that the only reason NYC is getting a shuttle to display is because Bloomberg and crew are unabashed socialists just like our current WH occupant. Sorry to politicize this, but it's a real slap in the face to the men and women who made this program work down at Mission Control in Houston when NYC (which has nothing whatsoever to do with the space program) gets a shuttle and Houston (with a huge staff of NASA personnel and contracting companies nearby) gets nothing (other than pink slips).

Like everything else with Obama, this is all political, which bites.

And yes, the Enterprise was a "drop" vehicle - never flew in space. It was used to test the aerodynamic properties of the vehicle in the late 1970s. The first two orbiters (Columbia and Challenger) were destroyed. Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor are going to the Smithsonian (DC), KSC and to Los Angeles, respectively. Los Angeles is even a bit odd as a venue, although partially justifiable historically since there is a rich aerospace history in/around L.A. Even so, I'm sure the selection of LA was made as a political gesture, not a nod to history. Enterprise should have gone there since it flew in the Mojave desert out of Edwards, not to NYC. One going to the Smithsonian I can see, as well as KSC. The allocation (IMHO) should have been:

Enterprise: LA - Mojave probably would be better both from a preservation standpoint and since the new Spaceport USA is going in there
Discovery: Houston
Atlantis: Smithsonian
Endeavor: KSC

Just one more reason to utterly despise this administration. Sorry for the PARF but the space program is something I've always felt passionate about and to see it treated the way it's being treated - as a political bullet point - just gets me P.O. ed. I hope the residents of NYC at least go see/enjoy the display. I'd hate to see it rotting away in the salt air 30 years from now, all but forgotten, which sadly is what I think is going to happen.

[svandamme]

Not to bash Houston or anything, but isn't NYC the #1 tourist destination in the USA?
So without trying to get into a big argument here, one could say it will be available for viewing by more tourists in NYC, then in Houston...And so more people will see it... No?

[NY65912]

It was great to see it fly over the greatest city on earth

[Racerbvd]

[mikeesik]

outasight-uber cool.
Thanks for that

[RWebb]

nice Byron!

I agree, it is the end of an era -- now let's go to Mars!