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Space Shuttle Collides With Bridge In New York
First time accepted submitter AbrasiveCat writes "While transporting the space shuttle Enterprise to its new home at the Intrepid Museum, a gust of wind caught the shuttle and pushed a wing tip into the South Channel Subway Bridge. With any luck it was just the protective covering that was damaged. Ah, New York traffic."
We were hoping that Britain would provide something of a buffer; but it looks like metric wind is making its way from the EU after all...
The summary should reflect that the Space Shuttle was being transported on top of a barge at the time of collision. Very low speed impact, very little damage. Headline is misleadingly catastrophic.
Mod parent up to +10. There's NOTHING worse than hyperbole. If I had a nickel for every time I saw unnecessary hyperbole, I'd be a BILLIONAIRE by now. If I could jump as over the top as these headlines get, I could out-leap Superman over tall buildings! Excessive use of hyperbole is worse than SATAN rising from the DEPTHS OF HELL, spewing HELLFIRE on everyone!
Or, maybe, just maybe, you need to take a valium. Not sure.
THIS is why you CAN'T have nice things!
Well, as long as we're all going to hell today, 2001 called, 1986 can have its tasteless humor back:
This just in: A SECOND SPACE SHUTTLE HAS JUST CRASHED INTO THE SECOND PIER OF THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE!
Should of sent it to Texas, we were more careful with our shuttle replica than they were with the real things it seems. Someones head is going to roll over this I bet.
I'm so glad New York City got a Space Shuttle instead of the National Museum of the United State Air Force. That way, citizens can pay to see it (NMUSAF is totally free--including parking), in a setting that makes sense (there were carrier-based space shuttles, right?) and it's clustered next to another shuttle (less than eight hours NYC to DC, vs. putting it towards the center of the country). Further, this shows that the Intrepid museum is already providing the lack of care they have provided other artifacts.
these are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise?
Have gnu, will travel.
After looking at the pictures, it's not like the Brooklyn bridge just jumped out in front of the barge carrying the shuttle. It was transiting a fairly narrow bridge. The wingspan on the shuttle is 78 feet, and a google map distance measurement of where the shuttle clipped the bridge says the space they had to work with was about 100 feet, give or take. That means if you absolutely threaded the needle, you should have had 11 feet (That's about 3.3 meters for you folks unfamiliar with a proper unit of measurement =) ) to work with on either side of the bird. That seems like a lot, but on a windy day.....very touchy.
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=J+F+K+Airport,+New+York,+NY&aq=0&oq=JFK+&sll=40.639749,-73.824348&sspn=0.097239,0.057421&vpsrc=0&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=J+F+K+Airport,+New+York,+NY&z=13&cid=17028024512003641840&iwloc=A
(if the link is jacked up, just go to JFK and work your way south east)
It looks like, from the pictures upthread, the shuttle hit the railroad bridge that sits between Cross Bay Blvd and JFK airport. I've ground handled large aircraft on the tarmac, and 11 feet is too close for comfort in my book. I don't envy the guys who had to try and make that work.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.