This week marks the Grand Opening of the new Space Shuttle Pavilion at the Interpid Sea, Air & Space Museum in NYC. The museum has several days of special activities planned to celebrate the new acquisition.
Check out the schedule, including astronaut meet & greets. I hope to visit the new exhibit to see OV-101 Enterprise in her new home. Earlier this spring, my family and I were able to be a part of the arrival flight of OV-101 and SCA-905 at JFK Airport. It was a thrilling day to see Enterprise in flight as I first saw her more than thirty years ago as I watched the broadcasts from Edwards AFB. While it is always a thrill to see these special spacecraft close up, it is even more thrilling to see them "alive" doing what they were designed to do. While I couldn't bring my students to the airport for the arrival, they were treated to a double pass directly overhead of the school as SCA-905 flew its pattern up the Hudson River to the Tappan Zee and returned for final approach to JFK.
Here are a few photos of that special day.
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OV-101 and SCA-905 on Approach @mwilkinson3 |
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OV-101 and SCA-905 Flyby Beauty Shot @mwilkinson3 |
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OV-101 and SCA-905 makes turn for Final Approach @mwilkinson3 |
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OV-101 and SCA-905 Triumphal Arrival @mwilkinson3 |
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OV-101 and SCA-905 Head On @mwilkinson3 |
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SCA-905 Pilots Salute @mwilkinson3 |
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Badges of SCA-905 Missions @mwilkinson3 |
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SCA-905 Pilots @mwilkinson3 |
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@mwilkinson3 with "the girls" photo by @LaurenAlloyce |
OV-101 Space Shuttle Enterprise was designed as a full-scale prototype to test and refine reentry and landing procedures and technologies. Some say, "she's not a real shuttle," but I strongly disagree. While Enterprise did not fly in space and has no engines of her own, she is in every other sense a real space shuttle, without which the other five (Challenger, Columbia, Endeavor, Discover & Atlantis) would never have been realized. This is the shuttle that ignited my imagination as a boy. This is the shuttle that made the last incredible 30 years of human space flight possible. This is the shuttle that made it possible to build the International Space Station. Enterprise, I salute you and look forward to my next visit in person.