Enterprise Space Shuttle Plane

Enterprise Space Shuttle Plane, An unusual flying object came to New York from Washington on Friday – the space shuttle Enterprise.

Enterprise zoomed around the city, riding piggyback on top of a modified jumbo jet, before landing at Kennedy Airport. Its trip included flyovers over parts of the city and landmarks including the Statue of Liberty and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on Manhattan’s west side.

As the shuttle passed Manhattan, people gathered on rooftops to gawk. It was chased through the air by a NASA plane, and in the Hudson River by numerous ferries and other boats.

The shuttle had been scheduled to arrive earlier in the week, but NASA pushed it back because of bad weather. Onlookers bundled up in a blustery spring day to await the flyover along the Hudson River. Crowds gathered along piers, cameras slung around their necks. The roar of the aircraft could barely be heard over the howling winds.

The shuttle prototype was housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington but will soon be making its home at the Intrepid, where it will be “the largest and most significant space artifact in the entire Northeast,” said Susan Marenoff-Zausner, Intrepid’s president.

That won’t happen right away; after its fly-around, the Enterprise is heading to Kennedy Airport, where it will remain for a few weeks until it’s taken off the 747 jet it rode to New York. (AP)