The very last launch of NASA ’s space shuttle program is scheduled for Friday , whenAtlantiswill set out missionSTS-135 . The hundred-and-thirty-fifth mission will cease the shuttle program after 35 years .
The U.S. space program would have never progressed as tight as it did without the wash against the Soviets to the moon . As soon as Apollo 11 delivered cosmonaut to the lunar airfoil , NASA wasasked to develop a new space programthat would be more right away useful and ( most significantly ) more cost - effective . TheApollo programcontinued through missionary station 17 in 1972 , but meanwhile technologist were developing areusablespacecraft . It was a totally new construct , a fomite baffling enough to go into distance , complete mission after foreign mission , and farming on earth with such small terms that it could be beam up again . Many companiesworked on the various technologies necessary for such a craftsmanship . We did n’t see the first space birdie until 1976 .
There were a total of six quad shuttles . Atlantis , the last to pilot , will beretired to a museumas will the latterly - flown shuttlesEndeavourandDiscovery . Two shuttlecock , ChallengerandColumbia , were destroyed along with their crews in blank calamity . And the sixth space shuttle ? That was theEnterprise .
NASA project to name the first distance shuttleConstitution , to commemorate the nation ’s bicentennial in 1976 . But that alter between the announcement of the programme in 1972 and the entry of the craft in 1976 .
Photo byAlan Light .
Star TrekfanBjo Trimblealready had experience in mobilizing trekkers ; she had spearhead a fan campaign tosave the originalStar Trekseries from cancellation in 1967 . That effort stretched the show ’s run into a third year . TrimbleorganizedStar Trekfans in a new effort toname the first outer space shuttleEnterpriseinstead ofConstitution . The White House meet somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 letters urging the name alteration ( although some estimates Goa high-pitched as 200,000 ) . I wrote one of those letter myself . President Gerald Ford spoke with NASA chief James Fletcher and suppose , " You know , I ’m a little partial to the nameEnterprise . " Ford did not mention the letter - writing campaign , but alternatively referred to the fact that he serve up on a Navy ship that serviced the aircraft carrierUSS enterprisingness . Fletcher resisted the name change , but was overruled by the Chief Executive . The shuttle would be namedEnterprise .
The names of the shuttles are used in the main outside of NASA . The first such fomite was concern to as OV-101 ( orbiter vehicle 101 ) by the infinite agency . However , the designation of the first shuttle was a putsch forStar Trekfans and a public relations boon for theStar Trekfranchise . At the official unveiling of the shuttlecock on September 17 , 1976 at Rockwell ’s facility in Palmdale , California , most of the cast from the originalStar Trektelevision serial publication , as well as creator Gene Roddenberry , were honored guests .
The shuttleEnterprisemade13 flightsin 1976 and 1977 , none of them in orbit . There were eight wrapped flight with the shuttle on the back of a 747 ( three with a crew aboard ) , and five examination flight . Pictured is Commander ( and Apollo 13 cosmonaut ) Fred W. Haise Jr. and pilot C. Gordon Fullerton after an glide path and landing place examination .
The original idea was to finally retrofit the prototype for quad flight andsend it into orbitafter the shuttleColumbia . However , design changes over the years made this melodic theme more expensive than building a new shuttlecock from scratch . I recall vividly how discomfited I was when I set up out theEnterprisewould not go into distance , and I envisage that everyone who push to name the fomite felt the same direction . In 1978 and 1979,Enterprisewas subjected to earth quivering tests . In the fall of 1979 , piece of theEnterprisewere removed to be reused on other shuttlecock . The rest became an exhibit . The vehicle toured Europe in 1983 and the U.S. in 1984 . It was showcased at the 1984 World ’s Fair in New Orleans .
In either a reaching of the imaginativeness or an use in aspiring intellection , the shuttleEnterprisewasfeatured in the 1979 filmStar Trek : The Motion Picture . In the movie , Commander Will Decker shows Lieutenant Ilia a showing on the history of ship namedEnterprise , which include the space birdie . In the boob tube seriesDeep Space 9 , the shuttlecock appears as a modeldocked to the International Space Stationin Caption Sisko ’s office .
If you have n’t seen theEnterpriseat the World ’s Fair , on tour , or in theSmithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection , you will be able to visit theEnterprisestarting next year at New York City’sIntrepid Sea - Air - Space Museum .
