Intrepid Museum

Intrepid Museum

Established	1982
Location	12th Avenue and 46th Street, Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Coordinates	40°45′53″N 73°59′59″W / 40.7646°N 73.9996°W / 40.7646; -73.9996
Founder	Michael D. Piccola
Director	Susan Marenoff-Zausner
Public transit access	Bus: M12, M42, M50 Subway: ​​ at 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal[1]
Website	IntrepidMuseum.org

The Intrepid Museum (originally the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum) is an American military and maritime history museum in New York City. It is located at Pier 86 at 46th Street, along the Hudson River, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan. The museum is mostly composed of exhibits, aircraft, and spacecraft aboard the museum ship USS Intrepid, a World War II–era aircraft carrier, as well as a cruise missile submarine named USS Growler and exhibits on Pier 86. The Intrepid Museum Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization established in 1979, operates the museum.

The museum was proposed in the late 1970s as a way to preserve Intrepid, and it opened on August 3, 1982. The Intrepid Museum Foundation filed for bankruptcy protection in 1985 after struggling to attract visitors. The foundation acquired USS Growler and the destroyer USS Edson in the late 1980s to attract guests and raise money, although it remained unprofitable through the 1990s. The museum received a minor renovation in 1998 after it started turning a profit. Between 2006 and 2008, the Intrepid Museum was completely closed for a $115 million renovation. A new pavilion for the Space Shuttle Enterprise opened in 2012.

The Intrepid Museum spans three of the carrier's decks; from top to bottom, they are the flight, hangar, and gallery decks. Most of the museum's collection is composed of aircraft, which are exhibited on the flight deck. Among the museum's collection are a Concorde SST, a Lockheed A-12 supersonic reconnaissance plane, and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. The hangar and gallery decks contain a variety of attractions such as exhibit halls, a theater, and flight simulators, as well as individual objects like a cockpit and an air turbine. Several craft and other objects have been sold off or removed from the museum's collection over the years. The museum serves as a space for community and national events, such as Fleet Week and awards ceremonies.