![]() ![]() ![]() The forward attachment strut was replaced to lower the orbiter's cant from 6 to 3 degrees. Fluid systems were drained and purged, the tail cone was reinstalled, and elevon locks were installed. The final phase of the ALT program prepared the spacecraft for four ferry flights. 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 flights demonstrated the orbiter's ability to approach and land safely with a minimum gross weight and using several center-of-gravity configurations.įor 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. 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 last two free flights were made without the tail cone, the spacecraft's configuration during an actual landing from Earth orbit. 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. In the five free flights the astronaut crew separated the spacecraft from the 747 and maneuvered to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base. 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. These flights were designed to exercise and evaluate all systems in the flight environment in preparation for the orbiter release (free) flights. 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 747. This was the final preparation for the manned captive flight phase.įive captive flights of the Enterprise mounted atop the 747 with the Enterprise unmanned and Enterprise's systems inert were conducted to assess the structural integrity and performance handling qualities of the mated craft. All orbiter systems were activated as they would be in atmospheric flight. A ground test of orbiter systems followed the unmanned captive tests. The taxi tests also validated 747 steering and braking with the orbiter attached. The ground tests included taxi tests of the 747 shuttle carrier aircraft with the Enterprise mated atop it to determine structural loads and responses and assess the mated capability in ground handling and control characteristics up to flight takeoff speed. The ALT program involved ground tests and flight tests. 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 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. 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. Designated, OV-101, the vehicle was rolled out of Rockwell's Air Force Plant 42, Site 1 Palmdale California assembly facility on Sept. However, viewers of the science fiction television series Star Trek started a write-in campaign urging the White House to rename the vehicle to Enterprise. Plans to refurbish it as a space-capable orbiter were scrapped, and instead it had a subsequent career as a pathfinder vehicle at launch facilities, a test vehicle for brakes and parachute systems, and a museum piece.Įnterprise, the first Space Shuttle Orbiter, was originally to be named Constitution (in honor of the U.S. Not equipped with a heat shield or subsystems for space flight, it was instead used in the nine-month-long ALT program from February through November 1977 to prove the shuttle's subsonic flight and landing characteristics. ![]() It was rolled out on September 17, 1976.ĪKA: OV-101. Enterprise was the first Space Shuttle Orbiter. Home - Search - Browse - Alphabetic Index: 0- 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7- 8- 9Ī- B- C- D- E- F- G- H- I- J- K- L- M- N- O- P- Q- R- S- T- U- V- W- X- Y- ZĪmerican manned spaceplane. ![]()
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