Enterprise space shuttle

Enterprise space shuttle

Enterprise at SLC-6 at Vandenburg AFB

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first Space Shuttle built for NASA. She was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield and was therefore not capable of space operations; her purpose was to perform test flights in the atmosphere.

Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have made her 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, an expensive proposition; as such, it was deemed cheaper 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.

Construction was begun on the first Orbiter on June 4, 1974. Designated OV-101, she was originally planned to be named Constitution. However, a write-in campaign caused her 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 she did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A large number of subsystems - ranging from main engines to radar equipment - was not installed on this vehicle, but the capacity to add them in 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 her name, most of the cast of the original series of Star Trek, as well as creator Gene Roddenberry, were on hand at the dedication ceremony, and the show's theme music was played.

Approach & landing tests
On January 31, 1977, she was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, to begin operational testing.

Whilst 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.

Retirement
With the completion of critical testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to allow certain components to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent a world tour visiting France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the US states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana. She 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 she became property of the Smithsonian Institution.

Post-Challenger
After the Challenger disaster, NASA had a choice of which shuttle to use as a replacement. They could have refitted Enterprise with all of the necessary equipment needed for it to be used in space, but instead they elected to use leftovers from the fabrication of Discovery and Atlantis to make what is now Endeavour.

Post-Columbia
In 2003, after the breakup of Columbia during re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board removed a fibreglass 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 fibreglass were cancelled 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 Centre at Dulles, where she is the centrepiece of the space collection.

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-inert 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-inert 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-inert 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

Space Shuttle Enterprise and the SCA at CFB Goose Bay, Labrador in 1983