Summary

Model of the NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise. The model is in a configuration with an external tank and solid rocket boosters attached, as it was when it was subjected to launch testing.

The actual NASA spacecraft Enterprise was the first space shuttle built. It was made to be a test vehicle and never flew in space. It was put into testing operation in 1977. It was also known as an Orbiter Vehicle (OV).

Space shuttles were designed to fly on space missions by being launched like a rocket and and then land back on earth like a glider or unpowered airplane. This allowed the shuttles to be used on multiple space flights and they were the first reusable spacecraft. They were composed of the orbiter, an external tank and solid rocket boosters. The first crewed NASA space shuttle launched in April 1981 and the last one landed in 2011. The shuttles included Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour.

The Enterprise was named after the fictional starship made famous on the television show Star Trek. It was used in ground and air tests within the earth's atmosphere rather than flying in space, and was critical in the development of the five subsequent space shuttles. The Enterprise was built for NASA by North American Rockwell Corporation in California.

The Enterprise was placed on the back of a modified Boeing 747, known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), for test flights and transport between NASA locations, as shown in the images of the model in the Museums Victoria collection. In a series of tests in 1977 it was released from its SCA and glided unpowered to the ground, steered by its pilots. The first free flight of Enterprise was on 12th August 1977. In 1978 an external fuel tank and 2 solid rocket boosters were attached to the spacecraft, which was submitted to various tests on the ground to simulate a launch.

In 1985 the Enterprise was retired and donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, although NASA continued to draw up on the space shuttle for research purposes, including after the failed launch of the Challenger space shuttle. The Enterprise was later moved to be on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.

Physical Description

Plastic model. White and black space shuttle sitting on top of a large white cylindrical rocket (the external tank) with two white thinner rockets (the solid rocket boosters) either side.

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