Seriously?
New York damages space shuttle: Enterprise dinged up on Jersey joy ride as SpaceCity steams
Space shuttle Enterprise — before New York got its hands on it.Photo by Ad Meskens
It turns out that space shuttles are not meant to go under New York area bridges— who would have known?Photo by Dennis Jenkins/CollectSpace.com
Yes, New York's already dinged up its space shuttle.Photo by Dennis Jenkins/CollectSpace.com
The space shuttle Enterprise suffered wing damage en route to New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Sunday.
After piggybacking onto a souped-up NASA Boeing 747 from Virginia to New York's JFK Airport, the Enterprise was heading by barge to the museum, which is housed in an aircraft carrier docked on Manhattan's west side.
That's kind of like lending your sister a dress for a wedding and finding out she wore it to a strip club instead.
But not before a stop at Weeks Marine in Jersey City. New Jersey. Sure, technically it was on the way, but that's kind of like lending your sister a dress for a wedding and finding out she wore it to a strip club instead.
The water route included some logistical challenges including navigating through and under the South Channel Subway Bridge, the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial, Gil Hodges Memorial and the Verrazano-Narrows bridge.
"The railroad bridge and the Cross Bay Bridge, each presented challenges," Dennis Jenkins, who was aboard the barge with Enterprise wrote in an e-mail obtained by CollectSpace. "The passage through the railroad bridge was narrow with only a few feet of clearance on each wingtip, while the Cross Bay was only a few feet higher than the vertical stabilizer . . .
"Mother nature did not smile on us. Just as the barge entered the railroad bridge, the wind caught it and pushed the right wing into the bridge abutment."
You know what, New Jersey? This is why you can't have nice things. (Of course, Enterprise should have gone to Houston instead).
The Intrepid confirmed the accident, describing the damage as a "rub panel foam protective layer of the wingtip of Enterprise [grazing] the protective wood piling bumpers in the water designed to bumper vessels."
Luckily the damage appears to be limited to the foam casing, according to Jenkins, sparing the structure and mechanisms.
Though officials said the incident would not delay the second part of the shuttle's journey to the Intrepid, the trip was delayed until Wednesday due to inclement weather.
