With NASA searching for a new home for three soon-to-be-retired space shuttles, it’s time to convince the space agency that the Big Apple has the right stuff to showcase one of these iconic spacecraft.
The perfect location for a retired space shuttle is the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Manhattan’s West Side.
Yes, it will be a huge boon to our economy and a magnet for tourists. But showcasing a genuine space shuttle will not only bring visitors by the millions, it will inspire multitudes to learn, explore and dream of adventure.
It’s perfect for NASA, too: The agency’s explicit goal is to have these magnificent vehicles seen — and their history understood — by the greatest number of people possible. And no other location in the nation can offer the millions and millions of visitors who will stream into the Intrepid to view and experience the shuttle.
Housing an iconic spacecraft here in New York City — the media center of the world — guarantees it will appear in countless news and entertainment programs broadcast throughout the nation and world, providing incalculable public-relations value to NASA.
NASA also requires any potential host location to raise significant funds. I have no doubt that the Intrepid’s drawing power and our city’s deep and diverse philanthropic community are more than able to compile all the resources needed.
Yet skeptics ask why a space shuttle should be brought to New York City. Perhaps they don’t know that the Intrepid led the recovery of astronauts during the Mercury and Gemini programs in the 1960s.
The exhibit will be sure to attract heavy foot traffic: The Intrepid will house the shuttle in a glass enclosure on Pier 86 — close to Times Square and many other tourist attractions, accessible from major airports, passenger-ship terminals and highways.
Countless boys and girls, as well as adults, with boundless imaginations, will be able to stroll over to the West Side and take in the truly magnificent icon of science, exploration and innovation.
With 20 institutions across the country competing to receive one of the retired shuttles (Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis), all New Yorkers should join the fight to bring a space shuttle right here to our great city. It’s a no-brainer.
I, along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Jerrold Nadler and our colleagues in state and city government are working hard to land the shuttle here, but we need your help to convince NASA that we are ready, willing — and very able — to be the home for a shuttle.
For more information, please visit shuttle2nyc.com — and join us in this important campaign.
Charles E. Schumer is New York’s senior US senator.