Gadgetory

hi i'm ty pendlebury from cnet com and i'm here at samsung space fest the launch of the new space shuttle enterprise museum at the intrepid air and space museum so it's very exciting we've got some great stuff to see let's go and check it out the Space Shuttle enterprise arrived in new york in april 2012 and now resides in a temporary pavilion on the deck of the USS Intrepid the Space Shuttle enterprise was NASA's original prototype and the first of six shuttles in all it was flown in test missions in the late 70s but never actually flew in space it was designed to be converted to space flight but as is proved too costly it was instead used to spare parts right here is the only place that real tiles were installed on enterprise and this was for the Columbia accident investigation as you recall when Columbia took off a piece of foam broke off of the external fuel tank tumbled back and struck the vehicle they didn't know it at the time but it poked a hole in the wing so when they had the hypothesis of what may have happened after the disaster and they had to kind of work that out so they actually took the main landing gear door off of enterprise and also a series of leading edge pieces and those were brought down to the Langley NASA Langley Center where they have the high-speed wind tunnels and they blasted him with the foam and they did determine that a piece of foam at that velocity can indeed poke a hole in a space shuttle museum says the enterprise exhibition is a great way for school children to learn about space exploration but my most exciting moment I got to tell you was this morning we did a members preview and there was a lot of kids and I just saw kids walk in and see their their jaw drop open and their eyes get so big and to just walk around and they got to meet astronauts this morning too so this is ty pendlebury from cnet signing off from the final resting place of the Space Shuttle enterprise