Enterprise Window
Yes, you can get this close to Enterprise.
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The Space Shuttle Enterprise is open for business in New York City. The Intrepid Air and Space Museum officially unveils the shuttle exhibit to the public on July 19, but Mashable got a sneak preview.
First impressions? The Shuttle is huge. I attended a shuttle launch a few years ago and got to be within a mile of the Space Shuttle Atlantis when it blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It looked pretty big from afar, but it's not until you're standing nose-to-nose with a NASA shuttle that you get a true sense of their size.
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And you can get that close to Enterprise -- within three feet at most points on the museum floor. You can walk completely around and under the spaceship. To get to eye-level with Enterprise, you walk up a ship-wide platform, which gives you a great view of the entire ship. No, you can't go inside of the decommissioned vessel -- that privilege is reserved for museum maintenance staff only.
The Enterprise is not one of the shuttles that made it into space. Instead, it was a prototype that proved the shuttle design was flightworthy and able to land on wheels, instead of dropping into the ocean as was the case with previous NASA spacecraft.
Since it never went into space, it does not feature the legendary heat shield tile skin -- but you'd never be able to tell from looking at it. The interior has also been at least partially gutted for spare parts used for repair and maintenance of the other shuttles.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise currently sits on the deck of the Intrepid, under a specially constructed, climate-controlled bubble, called The Space Shuttle Pavilion. It will eventually move to a permanent home adjacent to the Intrepid which is still being designed.
Tickets for the shuttle exhibit cost a bit extra: $6 for adults and $4 for kids. But for the kid in all of us, it's well worth the price of admission.
Check out the gallery above for an inside look.
This story originally published on Mashable .
