NASA space shuttle prototype Enterprise coming to NYC's Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum
WASHINGTON - The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum snagged a NASA shuttle on Tuesday that's never been to space - but in Houston, they have a problem.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the three retiring space orbiters would go to the Smithsonian Institution (Discovery), Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center (Atlantis) and the California Science Center in Los Angeles (Endeavour).
Houston, home to NASA's iconic mission control at the Johnson Space Center, never got off the launch pad and was shut out.
New York at least received a consolation prize, the Enterprise, a trailblazing engineless prototype that served as a training and test-landing vehicle for the astronauts.
It proved the space shuttle concept was workable - and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was happy to have it.
"Twenty major cities competed for these four highly sought-after shuttles, and the fact that the Intrepid was one of only four museums to get one is a huge victory for New York," Schumer told the Daily News.
Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn fumed that "clear political favors trumped common sense and fairness" in handing out shuttles to Los Angeles and New York.
And Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) was so peeved that the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, didn't land a shuttle that he's demanding a federal investigation. "The fight is not over," he vowed.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who fought off attempts by Texas to kill New York's bid, shrugged off the complaints. "I can't wait for my two young boys to experience the Enterprise," she said.
The Intrepid museum plans to house the shuttle in a glass enclosure on Pier 86 on the West Side - and hopes the exhibit will lead to a big increase in visitors.
To continue reading: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-04-12/local/29434366_1_susan-marenoff-national-air-force-museum-shuttle
