Space shuttle Enterprise sails into New York

NEW Yorkers lined their city’s waterfront to welcome the space shuttle Enterprise as it sailed up the Hudson River to its new home.

The prototype space shuttle rode a barge from New Jersey to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in central Manhattan, where it was hoisted by crane on to the flight deck.

Spectator Thomas Hoffler, 69, said: “I’ve never seen a space shuttle and I’m looking at one. I’m just spellbound.”

The Enterprise, which never went on an actual space mission, was taken to New York following NASA’s decision to end the shuttle programme after 30 years.