Space Shuttle Enterprise
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2007) |
 Enterprise at SLC-6 at Vandenberg | |
| Construction number | OV-101 |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Contract award | 26 July 1972 |
| Named after | USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 |
| Status | On display at Smithsonian Institution, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center |
| First flight | Taxi Test 15 February 1977 |
| Last flight | Free Flight 26 October 1977 |
| Crew members | 4 |
| Days spent in space | Never flew in space |
| No. of orbits | 0 |
The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first Space Shuttle built for NASA. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of space operations; its purpose was to perform test flights in the atmosphere.
Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have made it the second space shuttle to fly after Columbia. However, during the construction of Columbia, details of the final design changed, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for flight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an expensive proposition, it was determined to be less costly to build Challenger around a body frame ("STA-099") that had been created as a test article. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares instead.
Service
Construction began on the first Orbiter on June 4, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was originally planned to be named Constitution. However, a write-in campaign caused it to be renamed after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek.
The design of OV-101 was not the same as that planned for OV-102, the first flight model; the tail 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 this vehicle, but the capacity to add them in in the future was retained.
During summer 1976, the orbiter was used for ground vibration tests, allowing engineers to compare data from an actual flight vehicle with theoretical models.
On September 17, 1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwell's plant at Palmdale, California. In keeping with its name, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and most of the cast of the original series of Star Trek (minus William Shatner, Majel Barrett, and Grace Lee Whitney), were on hand at the dedication ceremony, and the show's theme music was played.
Approach and landing tests
On January 31, 1977, it 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.
The mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The purpose of these test flights was to measure the flight characteristics of the mated combination. These tests were followed with three test flights with Enterprise manned in order to test the shuttle flight control systems.
Finally, Enterprise underwent five 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 carried out under several aerodynamic and weight configurations. See ALT table below for complete list of ALT flight tests.
Preparation for STS-1
Following the ALT program, Enterprise was ferried between several NASA facilities to configure the craft for vibration testing. In 1979, it was mated with an external tank and solid rocket boosters (known as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39A. In 1985, it was used to test the Air Force shuttle facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base, including a full mating on the SLC-6 launch pad.
Retirement
With the completion of critical testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to allow certain components to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent an international tour visiting France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana. It was also used to fit-check the never-used shuttle launch pad, SLC-6 at Vandenberg AFB, California. Finally, on November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., where it became property of the Smithsonian Institution.
Post-Challenger
After the Challenger disaster, NASA had a choice of which shuttle to use as a replacement. Refitting Enterprise with all of the necessary equipment needed for it to be used in space was considered, but instead it was decided to use spares from the fabrication of Discovery and Atlantis to build Endeavour.
Post-Columbia
In 2003, after the breakup of Columbia during re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board removed a fiberglass panel from Enterprise's wing to undergo testing.[1] The test involved firing a piece of foam at high velocity at the panel. While the panel was not broken as a result of the test, the impact was enough to permanently deform a seal. As the Reinforced Carbon-Carbon panel on Columbia was 2.5 times weaker, this strongly suggested that the RCC leading edge would have been shattered. Additional tests on the fiberglass were canceled in order not to risk damaging the test apparatus, and a panel from Discovery was tested to know the effects of the foam on a similarly-aged RCC leading edge. A piece of foam from the external fuel tank broke off and struck the leading edge of Columbia's left wing during launch.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board determined that this impact caused a breach of a Reinforced Carbon-Carbon panel along the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, allowing super-heated gases generated during re-entry to enter the wing and cause structural collapse. This caused Columbia to spin out of control, breaking up with the loss of all crew.
Current status
Enterprise was at the Smithsonian's hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport before being moved to the newly-built Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles, where it is the centerpiece of the space collection.
Table of ALT flights
| Test flight | Date | Speed | Altitude | Crew | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taxi test #1 | February 15, 1977 | 89 mph 143 km/h |
taxi | none | taxi | Concrete runway, tailcone on |
| Taxi test #2 | February 15, 1977 | 140 mph 225 km/h |
taxi | none | taxi | Concrete runway, tailcone on |
| Taxi test #3 | February 15, 1977 | 157 mph 253 km/h |
taxi | none | taxi | Concrete runway, tailcone on |
| Captive-inert flight #1 | February 18, 1977 | 287 mph 462 km/h |
16,000 ft 4,877 m |
none | 2 h 5 min | Tailcone on, landed with 747 |
| Captive-inert flight #2 | February 22, 1977 | 328 mph 528 km/h |
22,600 ft 6,888 m |
none | 3 h 13 min | Tailcone on, landed with 747 |
| Captive-inert flight #3 | February 25, 1977 | 425 mph 684 km/h |
26,600 ft 8,108 m |
none | 2 h 28 min | Tailcone on, landed with 747 |
| Captive-inert flight #4 | February 28, 1977 | 425 mph 684 km/h |
28,565 ft 8,707 m |
none | 2 h 11 min | Tailcone on, landed with 747 |
| Captive-inert flight #5 | March 2, 1977 | 474 mph 763 km/h |
30,000 ft 9,144 m |
none | 1 h 39 min | Tailcone on, landed with 747 |
| Captive-active flight #1 | June 18, 1977 | 208 mph 335 km/h |
14,970 ft 4,563 m |
Fred Haise, Gordon Fullerton | 55 min 46 s | Tailcone on, landed with 747 |
| Captive-active flight #2 | June 28, 1977 | 310 mph 499 km/h |
22,030 ft 6,715 m |
Joe Engle, Richard Truly | 62 min 0 s | Tailcone on, landed with 747 |
| Captive-active flight #3 | July 26, 1977 | 311 mph 501 km/h |
30,292 ft 9,233 m |
Fred Haise, Gordon Fullerton | 59 min 53 s | Tailcone on, landed with 747 |
| Free flight #1 | August 12, 1977 | 310 mph 499 km/h |
24,100 ft 7,346 m |
Fred Haise, Gordon Fullerton | 5 min 21 s | Tailcone on, lakebed landing |
| Free flight #2 | September 13, 1977 | 310 mph 499 km/h |
26,000 ft 7,925 m |
Joe Engle, Richard Truly | 5 min 28 s | Tailcone on, lakebed landing |
| Free flight #3 | September 23, 1977 | 290 mph 467 km/h |
24,700 ft 7,529 m |
Fred Haise, Gordon Fullerton | 5 min 34 s | Tailcone on, lakebed landing |
| Free flight #4 | October 12, 1977 | 278 mph 447 km/h |
22,400 ft 6,828 m |
Joe Engle, Richard Truly | 2 min 34 s | Tailcone off, lakebed landing |
| Free flight #5 | October 26, 1977 | 283 mph 456 km/h |
19,000 ft 5,791 m |
Fred Haise, Gordon Fullerton | 2 min 1 s | Tailcone off, runway landing |
- Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (747) crew for all tests:
- Fitzhugh L. Fulton, Jr., Pilot
- Thomas C. McMurtry, Pilot
- Louis E. Guidry, Jr., Flight Engineer
- Victor W. Horton, Flight Engineer
Related media
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Popular culture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture contains a scene wherein former captain Willard Decker shows V'ger paintings of former spaceships that were named Enterprise. The original space shuttle is one of the spaceships depicted. During the opening montage of each episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, the Space Shuttle Enterprise can be briefly seen rolling out of its hangar. Artistic renderings of various ships bearing the name of Enterprise can be seen hanging on the wall of Captain Jonathan Archer's quarters, including the aforementioned Space Shuttle. This of course presents an interesting continuity problem, since the Enterprise space shuttle was actually named after the Star Trek vessel. It is therefore assumed by fans that in Star Trek continuity, the space shuttle was named Enterprise for another reason (see USS_Enterprise) and the later starships were named after the orbiter.
References
See also
External links
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