Space Shuttle Enterprise provided realistic, in-flight simulations of how subsequent space shuttles would be flown at the end of an orbital mission.Īugust 12, 1977: The Space Shuttle Enterprise (a prototype) flies free of NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) during one of five free flights carried out at the Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California in 1977 as part of the Shuttle program’s Approach and Landing Tests (ALT). The free-flight phase of the ALT program allowed shuttle pilots to explore the orbiter’s low-speed flight and landing characteristics. On August 12, 1977, a modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft carried Space Shuttle Enterprise, a prototype orbiter, during eight captive tests to determine how well the two vehicles flew together and to test some of the orbiter’s systems. Rolled out on September 17, 1976, a full-scale orbiter vehicle prototype, named Space Shuttle Enterprise and designated OV-101, was built for the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT). In order to evaluate the orbiter’s flight control systems and subsonic handling characteristics, a series of flight tests were undertaken at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in 1977. Back then the computers were not strong enough, and boosters were not reusable, so it was not an option to land boosters back as SpaceX does today. In order to “reuse” the spacecraft, it should have the aerodynamic characteristics and in-atmosphere handling qualities of a conventional airplane. It was an attempt to reduce the cost of spaceflight by introducing a reusable spacecraft. The concept of the Space Shuttle originated in the late 1960s. Today’s (August 12) story of what happened this day in Science, Technology, Astronomy, and Space Exploration history. The ALT program allowed shuttle pilots to explore the orbiter’s low-speed flight and landing characteristics. On August 12, 1977, NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise successfully made its first free flight test, as part of NASA’s Orbiter Approach and Landing Tests (ALT).
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