Space Shuttle Enterprise

Space Shuttle Enterprise (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) is the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system. Rolled out on September 17, 1976, it was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform atmospheric test flights after being launched from a modified Boeing 747. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield. As a result, it was not capable of spaceflight.

Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight to become the second space-rated orbiter in service. Following the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, replaced Enterprise at the Udvar-Hazy Center, and Enterprise was transferred to the Intrepid Museum in New York City, where it has been on display since July 2012.

Differences between Enterprise and future shuttles

The design of Enterprise was not the same as that planned for , the first flight model; the aft fuselage was constructed differently, and it did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A large number of subsystems—ranging from main engines to radar equipment—were not installed on Enterprise, but the capacity to add them in the future was retained, as NASA originally intended to refit the orbiter for spaceflight at the conclusion of its testing. Instead of a thermal protection system, its surface was primarily covered with simulated tiles made from polyurethane foam. Fiberglass was used for the leading edge panels in place of the reinforced carbon–carbon ones of spaceflight-worthy orbiters. Only a few sample thermal tiles and some Nomex blankets were real. Enterprise used fuel cells to generate its electrical power, but these were not sufficient to power the orbiter for spaceflight.

thumb|Platform to the Stars: Space Shuttle (1980) Official NASA Space Shuttle program information film reel.

Enterprise also lacked reaction control system thrusters and hydraulic mechanisms for the landing gear; the landing gear doors were simply opened through the use of explosive bolts and the gear dropped down solely by gravity.

| 1972 July 26

| Contract Award to North American Rockwell

| 1972 August 9

| Construction authorization from NASA

| 1974 June 4

| Start structural assembly of crew module at Downey plant

| 1974 August 26

| Start structural assembly of aft fuselage at Downey plant

| 1975 March 27

| Mid fuselage arrives at Palmdale from General Dynamics

| 1975 May 23

| Wings arrive at Palmdale from Grumman

| 1975 May 25

| Vertical stabilizer arrives at Palmdale from Fairchild Republic

| 1975 August 25

| Start of Final Assembly

| 1975 September 9

| Aft fuselage on dock, Palmdale

| 1975 October 31

| Lower forward fuselage on dock, Palmdale

| 1975 December 1

| Upper forward fuselage on dock, Palmdale

| 1976 January 16

| Crew module on dock, Palmdale

| 1976 March 3

| Payload bay doors on dock, Palmdale

| 1976 March 12

| Complete final assembly and closeout systems installation

| 1976 March 15

| Start functional checkout

| 1976 June

| Complete functional checkout, start ground vibration and proof load tests

| 1976 September 17

| Rollout from Palmdale

| 1976 October–November

| Start systems retest, complete integrated systems checkout

| 1977 February 18

| First captive flight

| 1977 June 18

| First crewed captive flight

| 1977 August 12

| First free flight

Service

thumb|Star Trek creator [[Gene Roddenberry (third from right, in dark brown), the Star Trek cast (with the exception of William Shatner) and NASA administrators attending Enterprises rollout ceremony]]

Construction began on Enterprise on June 4, 1974.

In an official memo, White House advisors cited "hundreds of thousands of letters" from Trekkies, "one of the most dedicated constituencies in the country", as a reason for giving the shuttle the name. Although Ford did not publicly mention the campaign, the president said that he was "partial to the name" Enterprise, and directed NASA officials to change the name.

Approach and landing tests (ALT)

thumb|[[Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton (wearing oxygen mask) in Enterprise cockpit, 1977]]

On January 31, 1977, Enterprise was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to begin operational testing.

While at NASA Dryden, Enterprise was used by NASA for a variety of ground and flight tests intended to validate aspects of the shuttle program. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for "Approach and Landing Test". These tests included a maiden "flight" on February 18, 1977, atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking characteristics of the mated system. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems were carried out to verify functionality prior to atmospheric flight. Enterprise underwent four more free flights where the craft separated from the SCA and was landed under astronaut control. These tests verified the flight characteristics of the orbiter design and were used to carry out several aerodynamic and weight configurations.

Planned preparations for spaceflight

At the conclusion of this testing, Enterprise was due to be taken back to Palmdale for retrofitting as a fully spaceflight capable vehicle. Under this arrangement, Enterprise would be launched on its maiden spaceflight in July 1981 to launch a communications satellite and retrieve the Long Duration Exposure Facility, then planned for a 1980 release on the first operational orbiter, Columbia. Afterward, Enterprise would conduct two Spacelab missions. However, in the period between the rollout of Enterprise and the rollout of Columbia, a number of significant design changes had taken place, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. This meant that retrofitting the prototype would have been a much more expensive process than previously realized, involving the dismantling of the orbiter and the return of various structural sections to subcontractors across the country. As a consequence, NASA made the decision to convert an incomplete Structural Test Article, numbered STA-099, which had been built to undergo a variety of stress tests, into a fully flight-worthy orbiter, which became .

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Planned orbital missions]]

Following the MGVT program and with the decision to not use Enterprise for orbital missions, it was ferried to Kennedy Space Center on April 10, 1979. By June 1979, it was mated with an external tank and solid rocket boosters (known as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at KSC Launch Complex 39A for a series of fit checks of the facilities there. In 1983 and 1984, Enterprise underwent an international tour visiting France, West Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Enterprise also visited California, Alabama, and Louisiana (while visiting the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition).

upright|thumb|Enterprise visited Vandenberg SLC-6 in launch configuration 17 months before [[STS-62-A|the first West Coast Shuttle launch was scheduled]]

Between November 1984 and May 1985, Enterprise was again mated with an external tank and solid rocket boosters in a boilerplate configuration for a series of fit checks of the never-used shuttle facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

On November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., where it became property of the Smithsonian Institution and was stored in the National Air and Space Museum's hangar at Dulles International Airport.

Post-Challenger

After the Challenger disaster, NASA considered using Enterprise as a replacement. Refitting the shuttle with all of the necessary equipment for it to be used in space was considered, but NASA decided to use spare parts constructed at the same time as and to build. While the leading edge was not broken as a result of the test, which took place on May 29, 2003, the impact was enough to permanently deform a seal and leave a thin gap long. Since the strength of the reinforced carbon–carbon (RCC) on Columbia is "substantially weaker and less flexible" than the test section from Enterprise, this result suggested that the RCC would have been shattered. On July 7, using a leading edge from Atlantis and focused on panel 8 with refined parameters stemming from the Columbia accident investigation, a second test created a ragged hole approximately in the RCC structure.

Museum exhibit

New Orleans, Louisiana

thumb|Enterprise on display at the [[1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans.]]

In 1984, Enterprise was on display during the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition (World's Fair) in New Orleans.

Washington, D.C.

From 1985 to 2003, On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that , the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, would replace Enterprise in the Smithsonian's collection once the Shuttle fleet was retired, with ownership of Enterprise transferred to the Intrepid Museum in New York City. On April 17, 2012, Discovery was transported by Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to Dulles from Kennedy Space Center, where it made several passes over the Washington D.C. metro area. After Discovery had been removed from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, both orbiters were displayed nose-to-nose outside the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center before Enterprise was made ready for its flight to New York.

New York

On December 12, 2011, ownership of Enterprise was officially transferred to the Intrepid Museum in New York City. In preparation for the anticipated relocation, engineers evaluated the vehicle in early 2010 and determined that it was safe to fly on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft once again. At approximately 13:40 UTC on April 27, 2012, Enterprise took off from Dulles International Airport en route to a fly-by over the Hudson River, New York's JFK International Airport, the Statue of Liberty, the George Washington and Verrazano–Narrows Bridges, and several other landmarks in the city, in an approximately 45-minute "final tour". At 15:23 UTC, Enterprise touched down at JFK International Airport.

The mobile Mate-Demate Device and cranes were transported from Dulles to the ramp at JFK and the shuttle was removed from the SCA overnight on May 12, 2012, placed on a specially designed flat bed trailer and returned to Hangar 12. On June 3 a Weeks Marine barge took Enterprise to Jersey City. The Shuttle sustained cosmetic damage to a wingtip when a gust of wind blew the barge towards a piling. It was hoisted June 6 onto the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan.

Enterprise went on public display on July 19, 2012, at the Intrepid Museum's new Space Shuttle Pavilion, a temporary shelter consisting of a pressurized, air-supported fabric bubble constructed on the aft end of the carrier's flight deck.thumb|Damage from [[Hurricane Sandy]]

On October 29, 2012, storm surges from Hurricane Sandy caused Pier 86, including the Intrepid Museum's visitor center, to flood, and knocked out the museum's electrical power and both backup generators. The loss of power caused the Space Shuttle Pavilion to deflate, and high winds from the hurricane caused the fabric of the Pavilion to tear and collapse around the orbiter. Minor damage was spotted on the vertical stabilizer of the orbiter, as a portion of the tail fin above the rudder/speedbrake had broken off. The broken section was recovered by museum staff. While the pavilion itself could not be replaced for some time in 2013, the museum erected scaffolding and sheeting around Enterprise to protect it from the environment.

By April 2013, the damage sustained to Enterprise vertical stabilizer had been fully repaired, and construction work on the structure for a new pavilion was under way. The pavilion and exhibit reopened on July 10, 2013.

Enterprise was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 13, 2013, reference number 13000071, in recognition of its role in the development of the Space Shuttle Program. The historic significance criteria are in space exploration, transportation, and engineering.

Gallery

File:Enterprise 1977 Approach and Landing Test mission patch.png|Enterprise ALT program logo

File:Space Shuttle Enterprise 747 separation.ogv|Space Shuttle Enterprise 747 separation

File:S79-31980.jpg|Enterprise makes its first appearance mated with an external tank and SRBs en route to Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center

File:Space Shuttle Enterprise Move to Intrepid (201206060005HQ) DVIDS724620.jpg|Enterprise enroute to its new home aboard USS Intrepid

File:Space Shuttle Enterprise Move to Intrepid (201206060012HQ) DVIDS723125.jpg|Enterprise underway on the Hudson River

File:Shuttle Enterprise Flight to New York (201204270023HQ).jpg|Enterprise over New York. The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Enterprise present home, can be seen below

File:Space Shuttle Enterprise 2018.jpg|Enterprise at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in 2018

</gallery>

References

Attribution

External links

Enterprise (OV-101) at NASA.gov
Enterprise (OV-101) Approach and Landing Test (1977)

Articles

How Star Trek fans changed the name of NASA’s first space shuttle. A declassified memo shows that 'hundreds of thousands of letters' called for a renaming. By Keith Wagstaff, Jan 11, 2025, Popular Science.