ONE OF NASA’S RETIRED space shuttles has been making its way along the Hudson River towards its new home at New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on board a barge.

The shuttle fleet, which was retired from service last summer after a 30-year programme, is being donated to various educational institutions across the US. The Intrepid is a former aircraft carrier which already serves as a home for the Mercury-Atlas 7 capsule.

Enterprise was the first orbiter shuttle NASA built and was completed in 1976. But despite later plans to update and refit the shuttle, the prototype never made it into space.

(Video uploaded by AssociatedPress)

Last month saw the launch and successful return of a cargo capsule by a private company in what was the first private shipment of cargo to the International Space Station. The company, SpaceX, is one of several being assisted by NASA in an effort to win NASA contracts replacing the shuttle programme with private cargo carriers to supply the ISS.

Look up above: International Space Station visible over Ireland tonight >

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