It won’t be long before Stubby the Rocket isn’t the only spacecraft living in New York City. Unless you’ve been hiding underneath a space rock, you’ve probably heard that NASA’s space shuttle program is being retired this year and as such the space shuttles are all finding new homes in various museums around the country. Yesterday it was announced that New York City will be getting the Enterprise!
Previously, the Enterprise made its home in Washington D.C., but now with a different shuttle moving into to take its place in D.C., the Enterprise is coming to the Big Apple to become part of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.
Because the Enterprise was a prototype for the shuttle program, it was incapable of actual space flight. However, it does hold the distinction of being the first space-capable vehicle renamed due to a letter writing campaign from certain science fiction television enthusiasts. (The shuttle’s original moniker was Constitution.)
The remaining two shuttles will find homes in California and Florida.
(news via MSNBC, Gothamist, NY Daily News)
Stubby the Rocket is the voice and mascot of Tor.com. Stubby is not jealous about this Enterprise thing one bit. Okay, maybe a little.
