Intrepid Museum Experiences Record Breaking Attendance in 2012

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum today announced that more than one million people visited the museum in 2012, the highest recorded attendance in the 30-year history of the museum and the first time it has surpassed one million visitors in a single calendar year. The landmark number was achieved despite the 8-week closure of the museum during peak tourist months during the holiday season due to damages incurred from Hurricane Sandy, and is led by the arrival of Space Shuttle Enterprise, which has been on display at the museum since July 2012.

"We are thrilled to have reached such an extraordinary milestone, to have had one million visitors, during the museum's 30th Anniversary and the year that the Space Shuttle Enterprise joined the collection at Intrepid," said Susan Marenoff-Zausner, President of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. "This feat is complemented by the increasing popularity of our annual Fleet Week and Kids Week activities, as well as our year-round education programs that offer dozens of unique activities to New Yorkers and tourists alike."

The Space Shuttle Pavilion, supported by new partners Time Warner Cable and Samsung, opened July 19th, drawing a 54% increase in museum attendance over the same period in 2011 before closing on October 29th due to Hurricane Sandy. The exhibit remains closed while preparations are made to install a new inflatable dome and rebuild the exhibit interior.

Other 2012 highlights included the largest Fleet Week and Kids Week celebrations in the Intrepid Museum's history, as well as the popular Intrepid Summer Movie series, which continued to screen in front of capacity crowds, and the launch of the first-ever "Samsung Spacefest," a 4-day event that coincided with the opening of the Space Shuttle Pavilion. The museum offered an increased number of on-ship education workshops, after-school camps and leadership programs, distance-learning programs and teacher development programs in 2012, as well as hosted a number of successful special events including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's "Hiring Our Heroes" job fair, The Colbert Report's "Stephfest Colbchella '012 Rocktaugustfest," Showtime's "Homeland" Season 2 Premiere, the Robin Hood Foundation's Veterans Summit, Sony's "MIB3" movie premiere after party, and many more.