New York ( CNN ) -- The space shuttle Enterprise , mounted atop a 747 jumbo jet , swooped across the New York City skyline on Friday before touching down at the city 's John F. Kennedy International Airport , bringing an end to its final flight . It took off from Virginia 's Dulles International Airport with a flight plan that included fly-bys of the Statue of Liberty and other Gotham landmarks . It is ultimately bound for its new home at the city 's Intrepid Sea , Air and Space Museum . `` This is going to be the largest NASA artifact north of Baltimore in the entire Northeast region , '' said Susan Marenoff-Zausner , the Intrepid 's president . `` For kids to be able to come and see this when they 'd have to travel miles and miles to go somewhere else , it 's right in their back yard . '' The space agency said it will put the shuttle on a barge in a few weeks and float it up the Hudson River to its final home . `` It 's the end of one era , but I think it 's the beginning of another era , '' said space historian Andrew Chaikin . `` The shuttle was amazing but it 's not sustainable . And above all , we need a space program that can do great things in a sustainable way . '' Share your shuttle photos , videos with CNN iReport . The shuttle , which has been on display at a Smithsonian Institute museum near Washington , is the latest to shift locations as NASA sends its fleet into retirement . Discovery -- the most traveled of the shuttles -- is replacing Enterprise in the Smithsonian facility . Completed in 1976 , Enterprise was designed as a prototype test vehicle . Test pilots demonstrated that it could fly and land in the atmosphere like airplanes , but the Enterprise never flew in space . `` It 's a very gratifying feeling for someone who 's devoted their career to test flying like myself and all the other astronauts , '' said former Air Force Maj. Gen. Joe Engle , who commanded one of two flight crews that manned the Enterprise during test flights in 1977 . `` To get a flight in a space shuttle is just the culmination of your entire professional career . '' The shuttle was originally to be named the Constitution , but a write-in campaign by fans of the television series `` Star Trek '' persuaded officials to rename it in honor of the show 's main starship . NASA sent the shuttle on a tour of Europe and Canada in 1983 , and it also appeared in the 1984 World 's Fair in New Orleans . The craft made a brief return to service as a ground test vehicle in 1984 before retiring to the Smithsonian 's collection in 1985 . NASA is preparing to fly space shuttle Endeavour to Los Angeles sometime in the second half of the year . Atlantis is being readied for display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida . The other two shuttles in the NASA program , Challenger and Columbia , were destroyed in flight .
NEW : `` This is going to be the largest Intrepid artifact north of New York , '' Intrepid 's president says . The shuttle is flown over various landmarks before landing in Baltimore . It will be housed at Northeast , NASA .