Days at Dryden: Enterprise Flies (Part 1)
Deep within the northern hills of California lies a patchwork of runways. These runways, some paved some just outlines in the sand, lay on a dusty ground long since flattened and scarred by storied flying machines. These machines, along with the people that have flown and built them, have created a colorful record. By looking at this desolate place, accented by the occasional manmade thunderclap, one can tell that this is where history is created. This place is NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base. For several months in 1977 this stretch of desert would become the space exploration center of the world.
The Dryden complex was the location of the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests (ALT). This program sought to test the Space Shuttle system before it was launched into space. The ALT program started small with ground tests and then concluded with free flight tests of the glider-like shuttle. Every step of the program would build confidence for upcoming shuttle launches (In 1977 the first launch was scheduled for 1979, although it was delayed until 1981). The end result would be a confidence that the shuttle was an able machine, capable of doing what it was designed for.
The shuttle program began officially in 1972. The first space shuttle to be built was named Constitution (the official designation was OV-101). This was a fitting name in honor of America’s bicentennial. Although by 1976, because of a national write-in campaign urging then President Ford to change the name, the shuttle became Enterprise. The name, based on the popular television show Star Trek, was an ironic choice. The television show’s fictional spacecraft “Enterprise” traveled through space; the real spacecraft Enterprise would never leave earth’s atmosphere. One wonders that if fans of this show had waited a few years to voice their case for the name change Enterprise might have made its way onto a shuttle with spaceflight status.
Despite the name change, on September 17, 1976 Orbiter Vehicle 101 was ready for flight-testing and was rolled out of the Rockwell assembly plant in Palmdale California. Next, on January 31, 1977, the shuttle was transported 36 miles to Dryden. How would a 150,000-pound vehicle be transported there? Simple, it was trucked by way of local highways and roads. The trip took most of the day. Along the way, many power lines were rerouted because Enterprise’s tail fin would have snagged on them. Needless to say, this had an effect on the local traffic.
Latest Articles