Space Shuttle Enterprise facts for kids

Enterprise on a test flight in 1977

Test flight 1977

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101) is a spacecraft used by NASA for testing of the space shuttles. Enterprise was built without engines and without the heat protection system needed for it to travel into space and return to the atmosphere. Enterprise began being built in June 4, 1974, and was completed on September 17, 1976. Enterprise was used for flight tests in 1977. Scientists wanted to test how the shuttle could be transported on top of a Boeing 747. They also did three test manned test flights with the shuttle still joined to the Boeing. When these test were finished they did another five tests with the shuttle flying without engines like a glider. The pilots practiced landing the shuttle at the Edwards Airforce Base. The pilots were astronaut Gordon Fullerton, Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise, Joe Engle and Dick Truly. After the test flights, the Enterprise was used for vibration tests at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. After all the tests were finished, some parts of the Enterprise were used in the building of the other shuttles.

The Enterprise was going to be named the "Constitution", but many people wrote to the President and asked for it to be named after the space craft on the TV show Star Trek. Enterprise can be seen today by visitors to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, D.C.

Images for kids

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  Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (third from right, in dark brown), the Star Trek cast (with the exception of William Shatner) and NASA administrators attending Enterprise's rollout ceremony

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  Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton (wearing oxygen mask) in Enterprise's cockpit, 1977

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  A crane hoists Enterprise into the Dynamic Structural Test Facility to undergo dynamic testing in launch configuration.

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  Enterprise visited pad 39-A in launch configuration 20 months before the first Shuttle launch.

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  Damage to the leading edge of the wing from the post-Columbia impact tests

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  Damage from Hurricane Sandy

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  Enterprise ALT program logo

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  Enterprise makes its first appearance mated with an external tank and SRBs en route to Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center

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  Enterprise at SLC-6 at Vandenberg AFB

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  Enterprise enroute to its new home aboard USS Intrepid

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  Enterprise underway on the Hudson River

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  Enterprise over New York. The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Enterprise's present home, can be seen below

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  Enterprise at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in 2018

See also

In Spanish: Transbordador espacial Enterprise para niños