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Hurricane Sandy Damages Space Shuttle Enterprise
SchrodingerZ writes "The now decommissioned Space Shuttle Enterprise appears to have been damaged by super storm Sandy, as it blew through New York City. The shuttle is currently on display on the deck of the USS Intrepid, as part of the Sea, Air, and Space museum on pier 86. The storm tore through the shuttle's inflatable pavilion which housed it, leaving a deflated mess over the space craft. It appears that the pavilion has damaged the vertical stabilizer on the tail of the craft. The museum has yet to comment on the situation. This is not the first time the Enterprise has been damaged however. As it was being towed through Jamaica Bay en route to its new home in Manhattan, the barge was hit by wind and forced the spacecraft's wingtip into a railroad bridge pylon ."
That would be dangerous !!
After this, I bet she'll never fly again. ;o(
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
To be fair, the Mona Lisa is also a piece of mostly carbon and a lot of poisonous metal.
It's also not really that beautiful, and lives more on its reputation than its actual appearance.
And we have technology today to accurately replicate its "beauty" and give the viewer the exact same experience viewing it as they have today, so really, your arguments for not giving the Enterprise any sentimental value can be applied to any "art" you choose.
That "more important news" is on other sites. If you came to /. looking for that news, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?
rewriting history since 2109
New York was the least deserving. I'm not knocking New York itself, but the one at the Smithsonian isn't all that far away and they don't have a Space Center there.
The only reason New York has a shuttle is it was the shuttle that was left after all the deserving blue states got one. Johnson deserved to get the Enterprise at the least, one of the others by any real world measurement of the situation. Texas is a red state, and granted Houston is more likely to get a hurricane than New York most of the time, but the partisan politics of the Enterprise sitting there at all is sickening. I don't care what your political leanings are, the obvious partisanship in the decision is as wrong as Google's current single sided issue promotion on their resources.
You misspelled Dayton, where they know how to take care of historical aircraft and don't leave them out to rust in the sun, like Texas did.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
You are comparing apples to pears. "Mona Lisa" is a chunk of dried paint and canvas that, granted, had its part in the history of art. Being a chunk of crusty paint and canvas, however, it can be replaced; and if it were to go lost, not many humans would spill tears over it. Enterprise, on the other hand, is a work of breakthrough engineering, science, and exploration, held dear by many more humans than said chunk of crusty dried paint on canvas. Moreover, Enterprise was crafted by many indivituals in a cooperative feat of engineering not seen since Apollo, many of those engineers being unsung geniuses who went on to further humanity through their engineering, which cannot be said for Leonardo Da Vinci, now long dead and no longer contributing to humanity. Last but not least, I do believe that you are a troll.
*slap*
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BMO
It costs $24 _per person_ just to get in to the Intrepid Museum. I do not know if they charge a rider for the shuttle tour.
Keep in mind, every single museum exhibit at this place was paid for with money borrowed on behalf of the taxpayer. Now the taxpayer is paying again for the privilege of laying eyes on what what built using loans their great grandchildren never consented to, but nonetheless will be paying back under threat of force.
Seriously, the idea behind a museum is to allow people to see things but at the same time to preserve them. A carrier deck is not exactly the best place for it.
Hm. You quite craftily inverted my argument, to show that what is true for Mona Lisa may also be true for Enterprise. I'll grant you that point. Insulting me, OTOH, is not a major contribution to this discussion. I, last but not least, do certainly NOT believe that you are a troll, which belief may be unjustified. I do believe, however, that this discussion merits to be deepened, whatever you may be. I suppose this proves beyond reasonable doubt I am not a troll. Can you prove you are not one ?*
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
And stuff like this is why I'm bored with Americans and their petty squabbles. You have absolutely amazing feats of engineering with which you have accomplished utterly awe-inspiring things, yet you chose to spend most of your time squabbling over whether one group of millions of people should be coloured red or blue based on whether a slim majority voted for PersonA or PersonB in a hugely over-inflated popularity contest and the benefits that come with this apparent colouring.
I'm sure you'll have some clever rebuttal, but I'll say it right here: I won't be bothered to read them.
Too bad they don't name hurricanes after men - like Kahn.
Headline: "Kahn damages Enterprise. Caretaker is quoted as screaming, 'Kaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhnnnn!'"
I don't know why you assumed I would have some clever rebuttal. You bring up a good point. Government policy is dictated by a slim popular majority in most cases, and that's a huge problem we have - it's really "tyranny of the middle," since the "independent" swing voters are really who decide our elections.
The point I was agreeing with was that there are some places that, solely due to their political and financial clout, get preferential treatment from government in the placement of educational and enrichment resources. The red states also happen to be the poor states, and without millions of dollars to throw at politicians, they will always simply be kicked to the curb when politicians are handing out perks like decommissioned shuttles.
I don't know why you would automatically go off and assume I'm trying to participate in some petty squabble, or why you would give some random stranger on the Internet who was trying to have a conversation about something such a poor attitude.
A piece of FOAM can rip through the wing, killing everyone on board and completely destroying the shuttle.
A piece of inflatable vinyl tarp can damage the vertical stab by simply falling onto it.
Damn... I'd hate to see what would happen if someone scowled at it harshly.
If you have a system of proportional representation, rather than "New York is a blue state, because the result was 63% voted blue and 36% voted red, so we have one blue guy who gets 31 votes", it'd be "New York is a mostly-blue state, represented by two blue guys with 21 votes and a red one with 12 votes, plus [an independent?] with 1 vote". (The independent only gets in if they have enough votes, not simply as the left-over.)
(There are many variations on how this is implemented, I just made one up without knowing much about how the US runs its government.)
You must get really tired of all those people going "wooosh" at you. Wooosh, WOOOSH!
Enterprise Kahn.
Google it, then hit ebay to see if you can score a sense of humor. British made ones are the best. Even if they put such a drain on your system that your taste buds and sex drive will decline. But at least you will get a geek joke on a geek site.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Plenty of letters left in the alphabet...
I take it you're not black, gay, or a woman. People do still get killed in the US for being "other", but most people who aren't "other" don't tend to notice that it's still happening.
I would imagine that the $24/head is to pay for the museum and staff, not to cover the cost of the exhibits. Not a big difference if the items were donated, came from the taxpayer or stolen from other civilizations.
"The now decommissioned Space Shuttle Enterprise appears to have been damaged by super storm Sandy"
Enterprise sat in the Udvar-Hazy center for almost 20 years before being sent to NYC. I don't know when it was officially decommissioned, but it has been effectively so for some time as NASA handed it over to the Smithsonian in 1985.
Enterprise was never a space shuttle. It was a glider/test platform that was going to be refitted to be a space shuttle. But that was more expensive than building Endeavour. Enterprise never had engines, and it was covered in fiberglass, not thermal tiles. In the end it was cheaper to build Endeavour from spare parts.
You mean like these?
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=National+Museum+of+the+United+States+Air+Force,+Spaatz+Street,+Dayton,+OH&hl=en&ll=39.783951,-84.108362&spn=0.005684,0.008256&sll=40.365277,-82.669252&sspn=8.15936,16.907959&oq=dayton+air+force+muse&t=h&hq=National+Museum+of+the+United+States+Air+Force,+Spaatz+Street,+Dayton,+OH&radius=15000&z=18
I do have to agree though. Dayton would have been a much better place to store the shuttle than on the deck of an aircraft carrier in an inflatable hangar. It just makes so much more sense to put one in the National Museum of the USAF. It may not be the reality, but it definitely smacks of political favoritism.
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
To be fair, they're building a new facility to house her, off the deck of the carrier. I don't believe it's going to be ready until springtime, so they had assuming, based on past performance, that they'd be able to protect her from the weather within the confines of the inflatable structure. They're actually pretty strong, but even the best made bubble wasn't holding up to that storm. Hopefully they're able to repair her tail and get the final structure completed quickly.
Fwiw, the military has a program by which you, too, can have a free fighter jet, x-plane, battleship, tank, or whatnot. However, you do have to pay for its installation, and you do have to agree to pay for its upkeep as a museum piece, in respectable condition. I suspect that the Enterprise was given to NYC under those same terms, and--yes--they have already violated them, though their efforts were probvbly best spent saving lives.
I don't think there is any favoritism; rather, if there is a difference between red states and blue states, it is in what the city management is willing to pay for.
Norfolk wanted a battleship: they got the Wisconsin. NYC wvnted a carrier and a space shuttle test vehicle. They all will be decomissioned; they all will hvve the interesting stuff removed.
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Actually of the museums that were finalists for getting a shuttle but didn't get one the Museum of Flight in Seattle had the best curation plan and the best financial plan. They had an indoor climate controlled gallery next to an airfield that was "Shuttle ready". They actually scored better than the Intrepid did and NASA admits it screwed up the scoring (putting too much weight on metro area population).
But that is water over the seawall as they say, unless NASA decides to take Enterprise back NY will get to keep her.
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The Intrepid's reputation with curation and preservation is shameful. So many other museums like the Air Force Museum in Dayton and the Museum of Flight in Seattle do a much better job with their priceless artifacts.
Given their poor record the Intrepid should not have even been a finalist for a shuttle.
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