After being delayed due to weather earlier in the week, today the Space Shuttle flew (atop a 747) from Washington DC to New York City, on its way to a new home. And none other than Star Trek’s original Spock, Leonard Nimoy was there to greet it. Full report, pictures and video below.
The U.S.S. Enterprise’s Namesake Shuttle Arrives in New York
After two weather-related delays earlier in the week, NASA’s space shuttle prototype orbiter Enterprise left Virginia’s Dulles International Airport this morning slightly before 10 am ET piggybacked to a specially adapted 747. Less than two hours later, to the delight of thousands of onlookers, the unique vehicles made a majestic low-flying trip up and down the Hudson River and past the Statue of Liberty before landing at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. In June it will be floated around the island on a barge before being hoisted by a crane to its new home, the flight deck of the floating aircraft carrier museum U.S.S. Intrepid.
Shuttle Enterprise flies over New York (Frank Jay Gruber)
AP Video of Shuttle Enterprise flying over New York
On hand at Kennedy to greet the welcome new arrival was Star Trek’s own Leonard Nimoy. Standing before the gleaming ship and speaking to an audience of dignitaries, officials and schoolchildren, he said “This is a reunion for me. Thirty-five years ago, I met the Enterprise for the first time.” He was referring to the famous original roll-out of the ship at a Palmdale, California, Rockwell facility in 1976, to the stirring sound of the original series’ theme, which creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the cast attended. “When this ship was first built, it was named Constitution. Star Trek fans can be very persuasive. They sent a lot of letters to President Gerald Ford and the president logically decided that the ship should be named after our spaceship Enterprise." After thanking the Intrepid for giving her a home, NASA for donating the ship, the scientists and engineers who built her and the fans of Star Trek, Nimoy ended his comments with his familiar Vulcan hand gesture and the
phrase “Live Long and Prosper.” New York’s Senator Chuck Schumer voiced a similar sentiment, telling the crowd “To the Enterprise and to the Intrepid Museum I say, live long and prosper in your final resting place.”
CBS Footage of Leonard Nimoy’s Kennedy Airport Remarks
Fox News Interview with Nimoy
More Star Trek/Shuttle Enterprise links
- New York Shuttle Fly-by Footage from (appropriately enough) Sky News
- My blog on the connection between Shuttle Enterprise and Star Trek
- Convention video of George Takei discussing fans re-naming of the Shuttle Enterprise
Shuttle Enterprise flies over New York (Frank Jay Gruber)
Boy, Nimoy’s having a pretty sweet retirement, isn’t he?
Ain’t It Cool News is saying that Nimoy hinted at a possible involvement in the new Trek movie during a CNN appearance about the Enterprise flyover in New York. Make of it what you will:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/55314
This is the closest new enterprise footage we’ll be seeing for a while i suspect. apparrently a new film is being shot right about now. i think a website should be set up reporting on filming news etc.
The Enterprise is beautiful. And for Star Trek, I say, “May it live long and prosper.”
I am surprised the site isnt reporting about Nimoys ” We’re talking, we’re talking” comments made on cnn
“CBS Footage of Leonard Nimoy’s Kennedy Airport Remarks” – No, it’s not, unfortunately.
Do we know who was flying the 747?
How many of us remember the test shuttle being named Enterprise and seeing TOS crew at NASA back in the day? I’ll never forget that, it felt like total vindication for being a sci-fi geek, even in 3rd grade :D
Wonderful sight.
Originally that was how the space shuttle was suppose to have been launched. On the back of a “space plane” I think it was called.
But hopefully now they will be able to build a space plane, or even launch the new shuttle off of a regular 747 like they did on the movie Superman Returns.
Full circle from 1976, when Nimoy (and most of the TOS cast, save for Shatner) were at the rollout in Palmdale, CA…
Fascinating! ;-)
6: I’ve notified Anthony.
What a wonderful event! It fills my soul with joy and brings so many of us together. I’m thinking of Edith Keeler’s speech in City on the Edge of Forever……”…I do insist you do survive….”to give each man hope and a common future….. Those are the days worth living for”.
This event is so very much needed right now…..It’s so much the essence of why I’m a star trek fan…….Please……let’s all endeavor to be kind, honest, understanding, considerate and our most intelligent when posting on this unique web site.
Very nicely stated Douglas. That is something I have always hoped for since joining this great website.
It’s so nice to see a shuttle, the Enterprise no less, going to New York, while we down here in Houston (central part of the space program), get nothin. :(
If Nimoy’s NOT in the next movie, why are his bangs so long and cut so straight, Hmmm??????
I was able to see the Challenger flying tandem with a 747 in 1981 when I worked in Oklahoma City. They stopped to refuel there and let the people see the shuttle close up & person. AWEsome sight!
Senator Schumer: “May the Force be with you.”
Nimoy: “Do you even know who I am?”
Senator Schumer: “I think I do. Weren’t you one of the Little Rascals?”
16…Not in 1981. Challenger wasn’t built until 1982. Maybe it was Columbia after her first flight?
July 4, 1982 was one helluva day, by the way. President Reagan was at Edwards AFB for the Columbia’s landing at the end of STS-4, the last Shuttle test flight, where he welcomed home the crew and declared the Shuttle “Fully Operational” in a speech in front of Enterprise. Challenger was on the 747, having just been delivered from Palmdale. Reagan gave the order for the 747/Challenger to depart for Kennedy Space Center, and they roared down the runway and took off behind Reagan. Say what you will about Reagan, but he could put on a show like no other President in recent memory.
Leonard Nimoy’s speech was perfect, wasn’t it? He recapped the history with informative detail, expressed pride and gratitude, and kept it brief. Class act all the way.
And his sideburns look pointed…HMMM….
Old Spock isn’t in Starfleet so the sideburns are iffy. A surer sign would be if Nimoy’s eyebrows are half gone and that doesn’t appear to be.
I failed to mention too that Leonard Nimoy seems like such a gentleman and full of class. Like you said Magic Al. Perfect speech.
Here’s another angle on Nimoy’s comments if you missed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuBdo5sj4oE
I had a “vision” that JJ Abrams will take a digital movie camera and shoot a brief video of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, it would be then used in a Starfleet Academy Holodeck Simulator! It would make Trek XII or XIII really cool to have the Shuttle Enterprise as a Holodeck Background! :D
Just a thought!!!
@MarkusMcLaughln
A perfect speech from Leonard.
I was wondering, is that a newer 747 or is it, by any chance, the same plane that has carried the shuttles since back in the day?
^25. This 747 is the same one that originally carried Enterprise on its test flights. It was originally an American Airlines plane and NASA didn’t fully repaint it till later. After Enterprise was delivered to Dulles in 1985 a second 747 was added for redundancy, but it was first retired recently and Enterprise never met it. Both 747s will be used for parts to support an active aerial observatory made from a third similar vintage 747. Speaking of old 747s, the ones used for Air Force One aren’t much newer and are also scheduled for retirement in a few years due to parts getting more scarce.
Interesting stuff, Magic. Thank you.
Glad to see Leonard out there during retirement
26… Actually, one 747 (this one, NASA 905) will be kept flyable and will be used for proficiency training for SOFIA. The second 747 (NASA 911, an ex-Japan Airlines bird purchased and converted after the Challenger Disaster) will be the parts donor.
A Former Nasa guy posted these.”Other Enterprise” Shots
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2012/04/high-altitude-f.html#more
Trek & NASA seem stuck together a little longer.
It was truly an impressive sight to behold, and a very happy/sad moment. Happy, because I got to see the Enterprise proudly entering the New York metro area from my office window in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and sad because its an end of an era in spaceflight history. The Enterprise-A has been decommissioned, and there is not an Enterprise-B being commissioned.
leonard shouldve kept directing past 1993’s funny about love, would’ve kept him from being so weak.