Shuttle Enterprise separated from 747 jet

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The shuttle Enterprise is one step closer to its final destination at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Overnight, the shuttle was separated from a 747 aircraft at Kennedy Airport.

It was last month that the Enterprise arrived on that plane in New York City, in a thrilling flight over the city's major landmarks.

Beginning at 10 p.m. Saturday, engineers carefully moved the shuttle back to a storage hangar.

They used two cranes and a special wind restraint system to gently offload it from the 747 and onto a trailer.

NASA performed the operation Saturday night because the winds were less than 10 miles an hour.

The next step will come June 6th, when the Enterprise is moved onto a tugboat and carried around New York Harbor to the Intrepid.

The exhibit will open to the public July 19th.

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Get more New York News »

new york city, space shuttle, nasa, new york news, darla miles
// perform JavaScript after the document is scriptable.OTV.common.modules.promoCarousel.promoCarouselInit("/wabc/xml?id=5758260&ptnr=promoCarousel");

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

View the original article here