The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum has landed a NASA space shuttle!

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will announce later Tuesday that the prototype Enterprise shuttle has been awarded to the Intrepid, sources said.

The decision follows months of aggressive lobbying from Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Bolden, a four-time astronaut and retired Marine major general, will also announce where the retiring Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour shuttles will go on display Tuesday afternoon.

The Intrepid plans to house the shuttle in a glass enclosure – and hopes that the exhibit will bring in more than 1 million visitors. NASA estimates the cost of preparing and delivering the shuttles at $42 million each – cash the Intrepid hopes to raise through fund-raising efforts. The shuttles are slated to be delivered sometime next year.

The Enterprise shuttle was a test model that flew, but never orbited space. Built in 1976, the Enterprise was initially set to be named the Constitution. Star Trek fans inundated then-President Gerald Ford, pleading for a change to the Enterprise.
Ford, who served aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise supply ship during World War II, never mentioned the Trekkie effort in overriding NASA officials.

The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum on the Hudson’s Pier 86 was up against tough competition from 20 other cities and institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

But "as the cultural and economic capital of our nation, New York City has the right stuff to best exhibit the shuttle," Gillibrand said.

via the NY Daily News

Using a $77 Nikon Coolpix and a $60 latex balloon filled with helium, a team of teenage students captured these remarkable shots from 20 miles above the Earth’s surface.

Radio-synced to Google Earth, the team tracked the package as it soared 885 feet per minute into the sky, taking shots on a periodic timer. The balloon eventually failed around 100,000 before the system parachuted to the ground.

See more pictures and the full article at Gizmodo.

On a cool spring eve March 15th, 2009 a bat, crippled and wistful, clung to the Space Shuttle Discovery as it was thrust toward the great beyond. Goodbye and godspeed, my magnificent Spacebat.

At some point during the countdown, Spacebat—a Free-Tailed Chiroptera—was spotted latched to the foam of the external fuel tank, occasionally moving but never letting go. Wildlife experts deduced that he had injured his wing and shoulder, leaving him with little chance of survival. He remained on the tank until launch. NASA’s cold report?

The animal likely perished quickly during Discovery’s climb into orbit.

See the full article at Gizmodo.