It wasn't always known as "Enterprise." Originally, NASA had pegged the name Constitution and had planned to unveil it on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. A huge letter write-in campaign by Star Trek fans to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek. President Ford —who during World War II had served on the aircraft carrier USS Monterey that served with USS Enterprise —said that he was "partial to the name" and overrode NASA. I remember William Shatner, Gene Rodenberry and the Star Trek gang on hand as the Enterprise was rolled out of its Palmdale, CA construction hanger.
(George Lucas' letter write-in campaign to use the name "Millennium Falcon" unfortunately failed at the last minute.)
- no not really.
Space Shuttle OV-101 (Enterprise) at the launch pad in California 1985.
Yes that's right, Vandenberg AFB on the west coast of CA. Nasa and the Air Force had planned to use VAFB to launch space shuttles into a semi-polar orbit so that they could conduct "science experiments" over the (then) Soviet Union. (Looks like a scene from Moonraker)
Can't believe I still have this. From The Pueblo Chieftain on Feb 16, 1977.
The first ALT - approach and landing test - of the Enterprise.
I got my chance to see the Enterprise on top it's 747 in 1984 when it took a "tour" of the United States on it's way to the Smithsonian Museum. It stopped at Shriver AFB in nearby Colorado Springs for an afternoon. I was in high school at the time, and still a space geek. Still trying to figure what to do in my life, I had written off astronaut training. I just couldn't hack the math. But I still followed the space shuttle from launch to landing. My family wasn't poor, but a trip to Florida for a launch was financially out of the question. So I watched on TV, followed the radio and newspaper, and even wrote to the US Government Printing Office for info. (Remember that commercial? had the zip code 81009. It was located about 10 miles from my house. Pueblo housed the Govt. printing office and even a small govt. print shop bookstore. Pamphlets and books about NASA for .50 cents. It was awsome)
The Enterprise did it's job, and did it well. It was tested in all sorts of configurations. It was dropped from an airplane, shaken to the core, and rolled back and forth to the launch pad. One of its most important tests came in 2003 when part of its wing was used to test theories on the breakup of the shuttle Columbia.
Enterprise is headed to the Big Apple, where it will be housed in a new hanger near the USS Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. And believe it or not, it is still air worthy. It will be flown on the back of a NASA 747, just like it was in 1977 - 34 years later.
