The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid is a battle-scarred veteran of 37 years of naval service. Started six days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, construction of the Intrepid was completed in 18 months. Today’s renovated Intrepid is docked peacefully at Pier 86 on the Hudson River and houses permanent and short-term exhibits on undersea exploration, satellite communication and technology, ship and aircraft design. Sixteen of the 30 historic aircraft on board were refurbished in 2008.

The Space Shuttle Pavilion, housing the Enterprise shuttle, opens July 19, 2012.

Programs for Seniors
“Community Connections” provides programs to senior centers, among other settings and populations. Intrepid staff provide free science and cultural programs for New Yorkers who may be unable to otherwise visit.

Visits to the Intrepid Museum include guided tours of the USS Growler submarine and the USS Edson destroyer, allowing visitors to walk the decks. In Kids’ Corner, children test their imagination and creativity with the Discoveries on Deck series. These free activities help curious explorers investigate and interact with history and technology. Seafest, a summer-long pier program, includes such events as a tugboat race, a Fire Department Weekend, a Friendship Festival, and Ghost Ships and Other Stories. Seaworthy Saturdays offer explorations of airplanes, ships, space travel, navigation, maps, codes and the shipboard life of a sailor. Birthday parties aboard the aircraft carrier can be arranged for children.

The Intrepid, New York’s largest floating classroom, offers an exciting variety of hands-on interdisciplinary programs and workshops for students and their teachers. How Do Boats Float? allows 2nd and 3rd graders to design their own boats. Microgravity: Toys in Space, for children in grades 5 through 7, examines life support systems used in space flight. Fifth and 6th graders can study aeronautics, from simple aircraft design to the Apollo Lunar Landing Module. Older students may take a self-guided tour of the Intrepid, one of the largest artifacts of World War II, to study exhibits as well as original documents and film footage of that war. A free Teacher Familiarization Tour is offered in which teachers are shown how to use the museum as a science resource.