The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opened in December, 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited on the National Mall. This photo was taken in 2004 - a year after the museum's opening.
After the approach and landing test flight program, Enterprise was used for vibration tests and fit checks at
NASA centers. It also appeared in the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans. In 1985,
NASA transferred Enterprise to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. On April 19, 2012, Enterprise was moved out of the display area in preparation for shipment to the Intrepid Sea Air and Space
Museum in New York City.
Space Shuttle
Enterprise
Without the Enterprise, there may never have been an Udvar-Hazy Center. NASA offered NASM Enterprise in 1985, but the museum had no facility to display it. The offer forced NASM to focus on an expansion officials had only been talking about for years. As always, there was bureaucratic foot dragging and infighting. Even with the pressure to build a home for Enterprise, it took another decade before the museum expanded at its new location at Washington Dulles.