Space Shuttle EnterpriseBy Marty McDowell/NASA
Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle Orbiter,
was originally to be named Constitution (in honor of the U.S.
Constitution's Bicentennial). However, viewers of the popular TV Science
Fiction show Star Trek started a write-in campaign urging the White House
to rename the vehicle to Enterprise. Designated, OV-101, the vehicle was
rolled out of Rockwell's Air Force Plant 42, Site 1 Palmdale California
assembly facility on Sept. 17, 1976. On Jan. 31, 1977, it was transported
36 miles overland from Rockwell's assembly facility to NASA's Dryden
Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base for the approach and
landing test program.
The nine-month-long ALT program was conducted from February through
November 1977 at the Dryden Flight Research Facility and demonstrated that
the orbiter could fly in the atmosphere and land like an airplane, except
without power-gliding flight.
Two NASA astronaut crews-Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton and Joe Engle
and Dick Truly-took turns flying the 150,000-pound spacecraft to
free-flight landings.
The ALT program involved ground tests and flight tests. The ground
tests included taxi tests of the Boeing
747
shuttle carrier aircraft with the Enterprise mated atop the SCA
to determine structural loads and responses and assess the mated
capability in ground handling and control characteristics up to flight
takeoff speed. The taxi tests also validated 747 steering and braking with
the orbiter attached. A ground test of orbiter systems followed the
unmanned captive tests. All orbiter systems were activated as they would
be in atmospheric flight. This was the final preparation for the manned
captive flight phase.
Five captive flights of the Enterprise mounted atop the SCA with the
Enterprise unmanned and Enterprise's systems inert were conducted to
assess the structural integrity and performance handling qualities of the
mated craft.
Three manned captive flights that followed the five captive flights
included an astronaut crew aboard the orbiter operating its flight control
systems while the orbiter remained perched atop the SCA. These flights
were designed to exercise and evaluate all systems in the flight
environment in preparation for the orbiter release (free) flights. They
included flutter tests of the mated craft at low and high speed, a
separation trajectory test and a dress rehearsal for the first orbiter
free flight.
In the five free flights the astronaut crew separated the spacecraft
from the SCA and maneuvered to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base. In the
first four such flights the landing was on a dry lake bed; in the fifth,
the landing was on Edwards' main concrete runway under conditions
simulating a return from space. The last two free flights were made
without the tail cone, which is the spacecraft's configuration during an
actual landing from Earth orbit. These flights verified the orbiter's
pilot-guided approach and landing capability; demonstrated the orbiter's
subsonic terminal area energy management autoland approach capability; and
verified the orbiter's subsonic airworthiness, integrated system operation
and selected subsystems in preparation for the first manned orbital
flight. The flights demonstrated the orbiter's ability to approach and
land safely with a minimum gross weight and using several
center-of-gravity configurations.
For all of the captive flights and the first three free flights, the
orbiter was outfitted with a tail cone covering its aft section to reduce
aerodynamic drag and turbulence. The final two free flights were without
the tail cone, and the three simulated space shuttle main engines and two
orbital maneuvering system engines were exposed aerodynamically.
The final phase of the ALT program prepared the spacecraft for four
ferry flights. Fluid systems were drained and purged, the tail cone was
reinstalled, and elevon locks were installed. The forward attachment strut
was replaced to lower the orbiter's cant from 6 to 3 degrees. This reduces
drag to the mated vehicles during the ferry flights.
After the ferry flight tests, OV-101 was returned to the NASA hangar at
the Dryden Flight Research Facility and modified for vertical ground
vibration tests at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
On March 13, 1978, the Enterprise was ferried atop the SCA to NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, where it was mated with the external tank
and solid rocket boosters and subjected to a series of vertical ground
vibration tests. These tested the mated configuration's critical
structural dynamic response modes, which were assessed against analytical
math models used to design the various element interfaces.
These were completed in March 1979. On April 10, 1979, the Enterprise
was ferried to the Kennedy Space Center. mated with the external tank and
solid rocket boosters and transported via the mobile launcher platform to
Launch Complex 39-A. At Launch Complex 39-A, the Enterprise served as a
practice and launch complex fit-check verification tool representing the
flight vehicles.
It was ferried back to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility on Aug.
16, 1979, and then returned overland to Rockwell's Palmdale final assembly
facility on Oct. 30, 1979. Certain components were refurbished for use on
flight vehicles being assembled at Palmdale. The Enterprise was then
returned overland to the Dryden Flight Research Facility on Sept. 6, 1981.
During May and June of 1983, Enterprise was ferried to the Paris,
France, Air Show, as well as to Germany, Italy, England and Canada, and
was returned to the Dryden Flight Research Facility.
In the April-October 1984 time period, Enterprise was ferried to
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and to Mobile, Ala. From there it
was taken by barge to New Orleans, La., for the United States 1984 World's
Fair.
In November 1984 it was ferried to Vandenberg Air Force Base and used
as a practice and fit-check verification tool. On May 24, 1985, Enterprise
was ferried from Vandenberg Air Force Base to NASA's Dryden Flight
Research Facility.
On Sept. 20, 1985, Enterprise was ferried from Dryden Flight Research
Facility to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On Nov. 18, 1985,
Enterprise was ferried from the Kennedy Space Center to Dulles Airport,
Washington, D.C., and became the property of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Enterprise was built as a test vehicle and is not equipped for space
flight.
Following the success of the Enterprise tests, the orbiter Columbia
was created and it became the first Space Shuttle to fly into Earth orbit
in 1981. Four sister ships joined the fleet over the next 10 years: Challenger,
arriving in 1982 but destroyed four years later; Discovery,
1983; Atlantis, 1985; and Endeavour,
built as a replacement for Challenger, 1991.
In the day-to-day world of Shuttle operations and processing, Space
Shuttle orbiters go by a more prosaic designation. Enterprise is commonly
refered to as OV-101, for Orbiter Vehicle-101.
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Enterprise Landing
on 9-13-77, courtesy of NASA |
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Construction Milestones
- 07/26/72 Contract Award
- 06/04/74 Start structural assembly of Crew Module
- 08/26/74 Start structural assembly of aft-fuselage
- 05/23/75 Wings arrive at Palmdale from Grumman
- 08/24/75 Start of Final Assembly
- 03/12/75 Completed Final Assembly
- 09/17/76 Rollout from Palmdale
- 01/31/77 Overland transport from Palmdale to Edwards
- 04/10/79 Delivery to Kennedy Space Center
Enterprise's Flights:
Taxi Tests:
- 1. 02/15/77 (Max speed 89 Mph)
- 2. 02/15/77 (Max speed 140 Mph)
- 3. 02/15/77 (Max speed 157 Mph)
Captive-Inactive Flights:
- 4. 02/18/77
- 5. 02/22/77
- 6. 02/25/77
- 7. 02/28/77
- 8. 03/02/77
Captive-Active Flights:
- 09. 06/18/77
- 10. 06/28/77
- 11. 07/26/77
Free Flights:
- 12. 08/12/77
- 13. 09/13/77
- 14. 09/23/77
- 15. 10/12/77
- 16. 10/26/77
Source: NASA. |
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