Google Street View Spots Space Shuttle Soaring Over New Jersey

Aug. 29, 2013— -- Exit 7A on the New Jersey Turnpike takes you towards the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park. Exit 15X gets you to Field Station: Dinosaurs, where families can live their own animatronic version of Jurassic Park.

But for a brief moment in 2012, the greatest tourist attraction on I-95 was between Exits 13 and 14. The Space Shuttle Enterprise, ferried by a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, was making its final tour around New York City. While many space nerds may not have been able to see the shuttle in flight, Google Maps did, capturing Enterprise on camera.

The Google Maps car has captured other one-of-a-kind moments on camera before, including amorous encounters of both the human and blow-up doll variety. Though finding "special" moments in the air is rarer, it has been done. UFO-like objects and God-like shadows have been photographed by Google's cameras.

Anything and everything on the internet is supposed to live forever, but Google Street Views might prove to be an exception. The photos of the Sydney UFO and the mysterious Italian smoke plumes seen three years ago are no longer on Google Maps, having been replaced by more recent photos.

But maybe they'll make an exception for the space shuttle. Because it's real.