The First Shuttle

摘要

In 1976, the same year the Smithsonian Institution opened the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C., the space shuttle prototype Enterprise rolled out of the factory at Rockwell International in California For the next three years, NASA used the vehicle in approach and landing tests, launch pad checks, vibration tolerance tests, and old-fashioned public relations stunts, including a flight around the Washington Beltway in 1983, while piggybacked to a Boeing 747. "People here said it was just an amazing sight," says Valerie Neal, curator for the Enterprise, which is now on display in the James S, McDonnell space hangar at the Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington-Dulles airport in northern Virginia. By 1985, NASA was ready to retire the Enterprise, but the Museum had no room for it, so the shuttle camped out at Dulles airport. For several years it sat outside, visible to airline passengers taxiing by. Silt and water leaked into the interior. The sun bleached the outer tiles. In 1992, a temporary structure was built to house the Enterprise and other artifacts. Still, by the time the shuttle was moved to Udvar-Hazy last November 20, it needed a rigorous cleaning.