| Subject: Enterprise
Posted: Tue Jan 29 12:17:06 1985
I saw a small piece on the news this morning about the shuttle Enterprise
being moved to the site of the launch pad that the Air Force is building.
I was wondering- is it being taken there for publicity or are they actually
going to send it up? I had always heard that the Enterprise was never
intended to be launched into space.
--
John Ruschmeyer ...!vax135!petsd!moncol!john
Monmouth College ...!princeton!moncol!john
W. Long Branch, NJ 07764
Kirk: You ought to sell a manual of instructions with these things.
Cyrano: If I did, Captain... what would happen to the search for knowledge?
Subject: Re: Enterprise
Posted: Tue Jan 29 19:25:26 1985
The Enterprise is used for "fit checks" since it has the same dimensions
as a "real" orbiter. There are still no plans to fly it in space, however.
Phil
[ I am missing the reply that the following reply addresses, -Dave ]
Subject: Re: Enterprise
Posted: Tue Feb 5 13:46:58 1985
> I've heard that it would cost more to make Enterprise spaceworthy than to
> build a new orbiter vehicle from scratch. She was never intended to fly
> beyond the atmosphere.
Don't confuse final results with original intent. In the beginning, NASA
most definitely intended to refurbish the Enterprise for spaceflight, and
said so, loudly. The notion that the Enterprise was never really intended
to fly seems to be a popular misconception. Unless somebody within NASA
was being much more clever than I think likely, it wasn't meant that way.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
|
| Associated Press Fri 15-NOV-1985 18:09 Shuttle-Enterprise
Shuttle Enterprise Trip To Smithsonian Delayed 48 Hours
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The piggyback flight of the space
shuttle prototype Enterprise to the Smithsonian Institution was
delayed for 48 hours Friday because of bad weather, and sources
said its route was changed due to pressure from Congress.
The Boeing 747 jetliner which will ferry the shuttle to
Washington, D.C., is to dip as low as 2,000 feet over several
metropolitan areas to give residents a close look.
Without explanation, NASA on Thursday changed the list of cities
to be offered a good view, replacing Jacksonville, Fla., with
Columbia, S.C.
Sources who spoke on the condition that they not be identified
said the change was made because of pressure from a powerful member
of the South Carolina congressional delegation.
NASA also announced Friday that a cold front moving into the
mid-Atlantic and Southeast states from the Northwest caused a delay
in the flight's departure from Saturday to Monday at 9:30 a.m.
Other areas still on the low-altitude list are Savannah, Ga.,
Charleston, S.C., Charlotte, N.C., the Norfolk-Tidewater area of
Virginia, the Langley Research Center-Hampton area of Virginia,
Wallops Island Research Center, Va., Baltimore, Md., and Washington.
Agency officials had said they could not add a city to the list
without taking another off because that would cut into fuel safety
margins.
Enterprise, which never flew in space, was used in early shuttle
landing tests and then as a traveling exhibit of U.S. technology.
In recent weeks it has been a tourist attraction at the Kennedy
Space Center.
The 747 will deposit it at Dulles Airport outside Washington,
where the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum is planning
to build a new museum. NASA is donating the test ship, which is no
longer needed, to the Smithsonian.
|