Thirty-Five Years Ago: Enterprise Became the First Space Shuttle Unveiled

The NASA space shuttle era ended a while ago, in late July when Atlantis landed, but thirty-five years ago today, September 17, 1976, NASA unveiled the first space shuttle: the Enterprise.

Obviously named after the starship Enterprise in Gene Roddenberry's TV series, Star Trek, the Enterprise rolled out of its assembly facility in Southern California, to be displayed before a crowd of several thousand people, along with several luminaries, including many of the stars from the original Star Trek series.

Sadly, although the shuttle was renamed Enterprise after a massive write-in campaign (it had originally been designated Constitution), some were to later admit it had been a mistake: this space shuttle would never reach space. Still, among a number of Star Trek stars were in attendance. In the image above, you can see NASA Administrator Dr. James D. Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who portrayed Dr. "Bones" McCoy on the series; George Takei (Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series creator Gene Rodenberry; an unnamed NASA official; and, Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).

Enterprise resembled future space shuttles on the outside, but on the inside, it was very different.

Space history expert Robert Pearlman explains: "At its core — its airframe — Enterprise was like its space-worthy shuttle siblings, but it was never outfitted with many of the systems that would have ultimately made it capable of orbiting the Earth. For example, its outer surface was mostly fiberglass instead of the thermal protection system tiles and (later) blankets that covered [the shuttle] Columbia."

It was also several tons lighter than later shuttles, weighing "only" 150,000 pounds. Much of that was because Enterprise lacked the main shuttle engines. According to NASA, the shuttle Challenger, for example, had an empty weight of about 175,000 pounds.

Although Enterprise was used for testing purposes, it never made it into space, although there was a time when NASA considered retrofitting the shuttle. It was after the Challenger tragedy, when NASA officials, in need of another shuttle, began to consider it. Pearlman said, "After Challenger was lost, NASA briefly considered retrofitting Enterprise to become its replacement, but ultimately found using the spare components left over from building Discovery and Atlantis to assemble Endeavour a more cost-effective approach."

In 1985, NASA gave Enterprise to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum near Washington, D.C. There it still sits today, but soon it will soon be moving to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. The reason: it's being supplanted at the Smithsonian by Discovery.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

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