![]() NASA Administrator Fletcher, Gene Roddenberry, and the cast of Star Trek minus William Shatner in front of the newly unveiled space shuttle Enterprise.įour months later, following the rollout, Enterprise was transported over land to NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base-about 36 miles away-to begin the approach and landing test program. Just over a week later, the Enterprise was unveiled to the world at the Palmdale California assembly facility in front of a crowd of a couple thousand onlookers, high-ranking NASA officials, and Gene Roddenberry along with most of his Star Trek cast. On September 8th, 1976, OV-101 was officially given the iconic name. ![]() President Ford, who served in the US Navy, told Administrator Fletcher that he preferred the name Enterprise because of the Naval vessel, the USS Enterprise-an aircraft carrier that was one of the few to survive World War II and the most decorated carrier during the war. “This group comprises millions of individuals who are deeply interested in our space program.” “NASA has received hundreds of thousands of letters from the space-oriented “Star Trek” group asking that the name ‘Enterprise’ be given to the craft,” wrote Gorog in the memo. Fletcher look at a space shuttle model in the oval office (Credit: NASA/National Archives) Right: the memo President Ford’s advisor sent him to suggest Enterprise be the name of the shuttle. Left: President Gerald Ford and NASA Administrator James C. It was revealed in a recently declassified White House memo, that President Gerald Ford’s senior economic advisor William Gorog attempted to convince Ford to name the shuttle Enterprise and that Administrator Fletcher was not keen on it but could be convinced otherwise. Kirk in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek television series. Without today’s internet, Trekkies managed to pull together and launch a vigorous letter-writing campaign to the White House to have OV-101 named after the iconic spaceship commanded by James T. Star Trek fans, however, had a better idea. Fletcher told his higher-ups in Washington that NASA would call it the Constitution and be unveiled on September 17, 1976-the anniversary of when the United States Constitution was officially adopted. “There were originally plans to retrofit OV-101 and make it the second operational shuttle orbiter, but during the course of development it became clear that the cost of making Enterprise space-worthy would be excessive.”Įnterprise was not the vehicle’s intended name. “ Enterprise was not built to fly in space–it was missing key systems,” explained NASA’s Chief Historian Bill Barry to the Observer. NASA completed this vehicle, that would later be known as Enterprise, in 1976. NASA finalized a prototype design called Orbital Vehicle 101 (OV-101) in 1974 which would act as a test vehicle that will never actually leave Earth’s atmosphere. Fletcher presenting a Space Shuttle concept to President Nixon in 1972. Three months later, Congress approved funding to build it. ![]() Fletcher would present a space shuttle concept to President Nixon in San Clemente, California on January 5th, 1972. After a few years of conceptualization and redesigns, NASA Administrator Dr. ![]() ![]() In 1968, NASA officially began work on what they called the Integrated Launch and Reentry Vehicle and a year later, President Richard Nixon would throw his support behind the agency’s endeavour to build this spacecraft. A decade later, during the mid-sixties, the Air Force would conduct top-secret research into these kinds of vehicles and determined that a reusable design was possible and cost-effective. Before the space agency we know today, there was NACA-the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics-and they were the first to consider a spacecraft that could journey to space and back, landing horizontally on a runway much like a commercial airliner. The journey of the Enterprise began before the Apollo era and even before NASA technically existed. These days, the spacecraft that helped build the foundation for America’s golden age of human spaceflight enjoys a well-earned retirement at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in midtown Manhattan. Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the unveiling of NASA’s first vehicle in its celebrated line of history-making space shuttles, the Enterprise. The space shuttle Enterprise being towed on the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty on its way to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, its permanent home. ![]()
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