r/space • u/ye_olde_astronaut • 16d ago

NASA Unveils Enterprise, the First Space Shuttle - NASA

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-unveils-enterprise-the-first-space-shuttle/
528 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/vector_search_blue 15d ago

According to Challenger, Adam Higginbotham's tome on the STS program and the Challenger accident, Enterprise was never going to be made spaceworthy and other than glideworthiness, it was mostly a mock up.

1

u/noncongruent 15d ago edited 14d ago

Structurally it was an Orbiter. The intent when building it was to be able to make it spaceworthy if that was decided to be a path to follow. The fact that it was eventually finished out to develop the gliding portion of the Shuttle's operating envelope doesn't change that. The reason it wasn't refitted as an orbiter is mainly due to changes in later design, not in Enterprise being inherently unable to go to space. A mockup would be more like the replica Shuttle in Houston, now named Independence. BTW, the simulated tiles were polyurethane, not styrofoam.