1976:
Enterprise, the First Space Shuttle
" 'Roll Out' of Space Shuttle Hailed as Start of a New Era."
The debut in 1976 of Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle orbiter, signaled a revolution in space transportation. Gone were the days of small space capsules, used once and retired after parachuting into the ocean. Here was a large spacecraft with wings and wheels, designed to land on a runway like an airplane and fly again and again. NASA introduced Enterprise as the flagship for a fleet of reusable vehicles promising to make human spaceflight routine and economical. After the Apollo missions to the Moon, NASA focused on developing the Shuttle as a multipurpose launch vehicle, cargo carrier, repair station, scientific platform, and crew transporter to operate in Earth orbit, arguing that a reusable, frequently launched vehicle would dramatically lower the cost of space access. The Shuttle signaled a shift from exploration to exploitation of space for practical benefits on Earth, commercial and scientific activity in orbit, and perhaps eventual passenger service.
Enterprise rolled out of the Rockwell International assembly plant in Palmdale, California, in 1976 amid anticipation about this new era in spaceflight. The next year it completed 13 successful approach and landing tests from altitudes of about 7,600 meters (25,000 feet), carried aloft on a Boeing 747 carrier aircraft at nearby NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Flying attached to the aircraft and also released for piloted descents and landings, the orbiter passed its systems checkouts and proved its airworthiness. After these test flights, Enterprise moved to Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama for vibration tests and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch complex fit checks.
Upon completing these duties, NASA planned to refurbish Enterprise for spaceflight by installing propulsion systems, thermal protection tiles, and other features not needed for the atmospheric test flights. As cost and schedule pressures mounted, NASA abandoned this plan, and Enterprise never flew in space.
Instead Enterprise appeared at the Paris Air Show and other sites in Europe in 1983, and at the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans. Everywhere people thronged to see the first Space Shuttle. In 1985 its final task was fit checks at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA then transferred Enterprise to the Museum, where it waited in storage until going on display in the new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in 2004.
In retirement, Enterprise continued to serve the space program. After the Challenger tragedy in 1986, it was briefly considered as a possible replacement orbiter. Immediately after the Columbia loss in 2003, NASA borrowed portions of the Enterprise wings and landing gear doors to help in the accident investigation. Engineering teams visited the original Shuttle many times to inspect, sample, and learn from it or to borrow components for testing.
For many, Enterprise heralded an optimistic era of routine spaceflight. But it also stands as a prominent symbol of wavering support for human space exploration. Enterprise shared a name with the legendary Star Trek starship but did not fulfill its own planned destiny in space, nor did the Shuttle program, with a total of five orbiters (Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour), succeed in making spaceflight routine or economical.
Yet when Enterprise first appeared in public in 1976, and when it reappeared on display almost 30 years later, it impressed — even awed — those who saw it. Its size, its wings, its very presence testify to a desire to make space travel as accessible and routine as aviation.
After Sputnik is a testament to the unique story-telling power of the "real stuff." New, richly detailed photography of each artifact and "behind-the-scenes" essays reveal the many ways in which space became part of the fabric of our lives.
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