edit: Google answered my question. Nope, Enterprise will be going to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City.

I had kinda figured that much – the Shuttles being flown inactive atop jumbo jets – but thanks for the extra details and info. there. Thanks.

Yeah, I guess technically they’re being “flown” alright but it’s not the same as them being *flown* under their own steam with pilots at their controls which is what the word conjures up in my mind. Wonder if they could at least do an Enterprise flight test style drop and glide back to their destinations with them?

Guess not.

BTW. Could be wrong I suppose, but surely the Space Shuttle Enterprise would have to hold the world record for largest, heaviest and most technologically sophisticated glider ever?

The two Orbiters, Discovery and Endeavour, are seen here outside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Both are being cleaned up and prepped to be shipped (or, more properly, flown) to museums

Flown? If only!

Yes, they will be flown, on the back of one of the two modified 747s that have served the Shuttle program since the 1970s. As opposed to being shipped on a barge or something, which I believe was the point of that comment. They will fly as they always did when moving between facilities.

And it’s fair to describe them as flying, even if they aren’t wiggling their control surfaces at all. They are inactive while being ferried (sorry, Moonraker) but they have wings which do actually provide lift during the flight. SCA pilots have been known to describe the combined vehicle as “the most sophisticated biplane ever flown”.

icewings — the Orbiters have been safed following flight; they are not yet prepped for conservation purposes. I think the idea is to preserve a flight-like appearance, so scorching and such will still be there when they’re done. But their appearance will be much improved from the current appearance; in particular, those mylar-covered gaps will be filled with the forward RCS compartment and the OMS pods, all cleaned of hazardous hypergolic residue. And the white circles on the back will be removed and fake SSMEs put in their places. (The real SSMEs aren’t going on display, but are hanging around for engineering use. They’re incredibly valuable engines.)

As for spacey stuff, they have – among a lot of other cool stuff – the Gemini VII capsule, and an engineering prototype of the Mars Pathfinder Lander.

This :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kayCLca1YMc&feature=related

& this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II7QBLt36xo&feature=player_embedded

& this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5w-6o76rW0&feature=relmfu

is how I’ll remember them. How I think we can best remember these technological marvels.

Not that sorrowful image of them being retired on the tarmac and grounded forever.

Perhaps in ten or twenty or thirty years time we can get all the retired orbiters together somewhere for an anniversary reunion.

Wonder where we’ll be by then and whether any progress will have been made in human space exploration and development then? Also who will have made such progress?

The two Orbiters, Discovery and Endeavour, are seen here outside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Both are being cleaned up and prepped to be shipped (or, more properly, flown) to museums

Flown? If only!

Imagines these orbiters launching, flying on their own and landing at their final destinations one last time. If only they could.

We’ll never see the Space Shuttles fly again. I find that sad.

I find it sadder yet that better, more capable, upgraded replacements for them aren’t flying already.

I grew up with the Space Shuttles. As a young boy one of my first memories is watching an early launch attempt for the very first Columbia flight when this then all-white spaceplane was The Future and Science Fiction coming to life. Now decades later I have seen the last launch on the news as well and then observed the Atlantis pass overhead while on its – and the Space Shuttles – final ever descent from home. With so many missions and memories in between those moments.

I never would have imagined the Space Shuttle program would end this way. For all their faults and despite not quite living up to expectations they were the one of the wonders of the modern world and – after the Saturn V-Apollo spacecraft vehicles – the most remarkable thing human minds have ever designed and human hands ever built and flown.

Ya know what? I’ll bet it’ll fly right over here in April as it heads up there!
Gotta get the whole UVa astronomy community out to see that!
Keep us informed of the ferry flights, Phil!

My essay about witnessing the Atlantis launch can be found here, if anyone is interested.

http://www.q-a.net/mauionline/?p=3559

Thanks, as always, BA.

Jonathan