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Volume XIX • Number 16 • May 3 - 9, 2012 •
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A REAL Skyview!
Two of our readers were quick to snap photos of the Space Shuttle Enterprise being transported to New York, soon to be placed on the deck of the Intrepid Air Sea annd Space Museum on the Hudson River. Matthew Rosenzweig photographed the larger scene, as the Enterprise flew over Riverdale and the Skyview Houses, and the Russian Embassy Residence. Local photographer Liz Guarracino used her telephoto lens to get a close-up of the shuttle in the inset at left.
By DAVID GREENE Thousands of aviation buffs lined the Hudson River from Staten Island to Westchester to see the space shuttle Enterprise fly—perhaps for the last time—aboard a Boeing 747. On Friday, April 27, the retired shuttle, riding piggy-back aboard the jumbo jet, sailed up and down the Hudson, flying at a low altitude. Mitch Hagen, an assistant superintendent on Palisade Avenue in Riverdale, watched the show from the roof of his building. “I’m probably one of the lucky few who got to see this two times in my life—once back in the 1980s and again today. And it’s just as exciting today as it was then.”
He continued, “That was the beginning of the program and this was the end of it. It’s sad. It’s surprising that the shuttles have been discontinued.” A man who would give only his first name, Avi, was walking along Palisade Avenue searching the sky for the shuttle, but he’d missed the return trip by five minutes. He recalled, “I was on the Cross County Parkway and saw it heading north, so I followed it.” Avi added, “It flew right over me on the Cross County, so I figured I’d just get off the road and try and see it on its way back. It was majestic.” On April 17, shuttle enthusiasts were treated
to a similar show when the shuttle Discovery was flown from Cape Canaveral to Washington, D.C. In the late 1970s, NASA built five reusable orbiters: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. Challenger broke apart during its ill-fated launch in 1986, and Columbia was destroyed during re-entry in 2003. There were no survivors in either crash. On July 8, 2011, Atlantis became the last shuttle flight, ending the program after nearly 35 years. Enterprise will be on permanent display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan this summer.