SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE VAFB SERIES
SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE VAFB FREE

SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE VAFB SERIES

The prototype shuttle Enterprise had performed a series of “fit checks” and practice assembly activities in 1985, even perching atop SLC-6 for a photo op. They would be joined by payload specialists Pete Aldridge, the covert National Reconnaissance Office director and under secretary of the Air Force, and Brett Watterson, a military spaceflight engineer.Īfter repeated delays in construction and numerous technical problems, launch was targeted for the summer of 1986. Discovery would be commanded by four-time shuttle astronaut Bob Crippen, with pilot Guy Gardner and mission specialists Mike Mullane, Jerry Ross and Dale Gardner. In February 1985, NASA and the Pentagon announced the crew of STS-62A - the maiden shuttle flight from Vandenberg. NASA had the Kennedy Space Center for the hub of shuttle operations to ascend eastward for equatorial orbits, but Vandenberg offered prime real estate to fly the orbiter southward on a path that the electro-optical telescopes for spying on adversaries needed to reach global orbits, looping from pole-to-pole. The Air Force breathed new life into SLC-6, or Slick 6, for military launches to polar orbit from the West Coast, a steadfast requirement for secret surveillance satellites. The 1980s dawned with America’s new space shuttle and the promise that it could carry all of the nation’s satellites to orbit. Space Launch Complex 6, along the rugged terrain on the southern expanse of Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a sprawling pad originally built for the military’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory reconnaissance space station in the 1960s before that was cancelled. Air Force was on the cusp of something unprecedented in human spaceflight - launching a space shuttle crew from California and paving the way for people to fly true polar missions. The shuttle Enterprise sits atop SLC-6 for “fit checks” in 1985. Follow for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter and on Facebook. You can follow senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter. Discovery will go to the Smithsonian, which is why Enterprise is being shipped out to New York.Ītlantis will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, while the California Science Center in Los Angeles gets Endeavour. The remaining orbiters are headed to museum retirement homes. The space shuttle fleet was grounded after Atlantis' STS-135 mission landed this past July. '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,' Pearlman said. The Challenger tragedy spurred NASA officials to think about sending Enterprise to space, Pearlman said. Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in January 1986, killing all seven crewmembers onboard. Ĭolumbia made the shuttle program's first spaceflight in April 1981 but was lost along with its entire seven-astronaut crew in a 2003 re-entry accident.

It still sits there today, but the shuttle will soon be heading to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.įive space-ready orbiters joined the shuttle fleet after Enterprise: Columbia in 1979, Challenger in 1982, Discovery in 1983, Atlantis in 1985 and Endeavour in 1991. In 1985, NASA handed Enterprise over to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum near Washington, D.C.

The orbiter also journeyed to New Orleans for the 1984 World's Fair. and SLC-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.,' Pearlman told in an email.Įnterprise also traveled the world as a showpiece, making stops in Canada, France, Italy, Germany and England in 1983. Then, from 1978 to 1985, Enterprise was ferried to various NASA centers, where it served as a sort of practice tool for engineers working on flight-ready space shuttles.Įnterprise 'was the 'fit-check' vehicle for the space shuttle on two launch pads - Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. These trials proved out the shuttle's design, demonstrating its airworthiness and landing abilities. Over the next nine months, NASA engineers put Enterprise through a series of ground and flight tests. 31, 1977, NASA transported Enterprise 36 miles (58 kilometers) overland to the space agency's Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base. The tests were conducted to verify aerodynamics and handling characteristics in preparation for orbital flights with the Space Shuttle Columbia, which began in April 1981.

SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE VAFB FREE

The space shuttle prototype Enterprise flies free after being released from NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft over Rogers Dry Lakebed during the second of five free flights carried out at the Dryden Flight Research Center, in Edwards, Calif., as part of the shuttle program's Approach and Landing Tests (ALT).

Space shuttle enterprise vafb