Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise

[dlazarus6660]

Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise is/was a fully functional Orbiter yet it was never launched. Why was this Orbiter never used as a backup? We could have been still launching the Space Shuttle with this machine. What gives?

[WillMarchant]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise

[dlazarus6660]

Soooo, with a few nails, a little paint, she could fly into space!
I'm sorry she did not get the chance!
I hope to go and see her this summer!

[hornet driver]

Enterprise was built as an aerodynamic test artical and had none of the systems installed --external or internal --to make it a functional orbiter.In fact it was so different from the orbiters it would have been next to impossible to bring it up to orbiter standards. It was built as a one-off test bird. It really only looks like the other shuttles externally.

[dlazarus6660]

Why did they consider it to be a replacment to the the Challenger?
or Columbia?

[hornet driver]

I never heard that. Sounds like a media thing to me , but I could be wrong. My understanding was it would cost less-or about the same to build another orbiter than to try to refit Enterpise. There where a ton of structural differences among other things. btw is the packet idea ok?

[Eat, sleep, and Fly]

Why did they consider it to be a replacment to the the Challenger?
or Columbia?

They were planning to convert it, but decided it would be more economical to build a whole new orbiter.

[JStarStar]

Converting Enterprise was the natural "popular" first idea when it was decided to continue the shuttle program after the Challenger disaster, but as several have already posted, Enterprise was significantly enough different in terms of structure, inside systems etc etc that to refit it would have cost more than assemble Endeavour essentially from scratch.

As far as I know there was never any serious discussion of replacing Columbia when it went down. By that stage it was obvious there were some serious fundamental design deficiencies in the shuttle and with the program already being drawn down, building a new shuttle would not have made sense.

[Rocketbuilder]

Apparently, later this month, the orbiter Enterprise will be transported to an air and space museum in New York. The Udvard-Hazy Center is replacing it with the Discovery.

[luke strawwalker]

As mentioned by others, Enterprise was outfitted and constructed specifically for the Approach and Landing Tests. While it was POSSIBLE to refit Enterprise into an orbital shuttle, in actuality it would have been EXTREMELY expensive and impractical, which is why it was never done.

Columbia and Challenger were built much like Enterprise-- some refining of the design was done, but they were both "heavyweight" orbiters. That's why Columbia was not flown to the ISS and was virtually unused when the shuttle program's focus became constructing and flying to the ISS... the heavyweight orbiters basically couldn't fly to ISS with any appreciable payloads. The later orbiters built after Challenger (Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour) had further design refinements that made them significantly lighter than the first three "heavy" orbiters (Enterprise, Columbia, and Challenger). Challenger was lost in 1986 and Enterprise was never refitted for orbital flight, so that left Columbia as the sole "heavyweight" orbiter, which was of little use in the ISS era. That's why Columbia flew one of the very few remaining "non-ISS" orbital missions on which it was lost in 2003. Columbia was too heavy to even service Hubble, since basically the Hubble missions were at the upper end of the capabilities of even the "lightweight" orbiters... (as were ISS missions carrying heavy components to the highly inclined 51.6 degree orbital plane of ISS).

SO, there ya go... Later! OL JR

[BABAR]

Actually saw Enterprise flying piggyback on the 747 carrier (at least i think it was a 747) on a VERY quick flyby at USAFA. Would have been in early 80s. Wish i had made the effort to see an actual launch.

[BABAR]

As mentioned by others, Enterprise was outfitted and constructed specifically for the Approach and Landing Tests. While it was POSSIBLE to refit Enterprise into an orbital shuttle, in actuality it would have been EXTREMELY expensive and impractical, which is why it was never done.

Columbia and Challenger were built much like Enterprise-- some refining of the design was done, but they were both "heavyweight" orbiters. That's why Columbia was not flown to the ISS and was virtually unused when the shuttle program's focus became constructing and flying to the ISS... the heavyweight orbiters basically couldn't fly to ISS with any appreciable payloads. The later orbiters built after Challenger (Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour) had further design refinements that made them significantly lighter than the first three "heavy" orbiters (Enterprise, Columbia, and Challenger). Challenger was lost in 1986 and Enterprise was never refitted for orbital flight, so that left Columbia as the sole "heavyweight" orbiter, which was of little use in the ISS era. That's why Columbia flew one of the very few remaining "non-ISS" orbital missions on which it was lost in 2003. Columbia was too heavy to even service Hubble, since basically the Hubble missions were at the upper end of the capabilities of even the "lightweight" orbiters... (as were ISS missions carrying heavy components to the highly inclined 51.6 degree orbital plane of ISS).

SO, there ya go... Later! OL JR

So just coincidence that the two shuttles that were lost were also the only launched "heavies"????