Comments on: Getting “Enterprise” Ready for Prime Time

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 08:22:58 +0000

Visitors would never be allowed inside the space shuttles because there is no easy way to get in and out. Keep in mind that this isn’t a house or airplane with big doors for easy access. It has small hatches that the astronauts used to get from one place to another. If visitors were allowed access they would literally have to crawl in and out of the ship which over time would cause considerable wear and damage.
That being said, I too would love to see the inside of the orbiter. Like all the other aircraft though we will have to be content with pictures and video instead. I would not want to see the orbiter get damaged in any way for future generations.

By: Elaine Werder

Elaine Werder — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:21:18 +0000

Such a delight to read about all the effort that went into
the preparation of the Enterprise for display. It was certainly all worth while and the results couldn’t have
been better. Hope that wherever it goes it will be appreciated.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:40:31 +0000

I guess that will be a dilemma for the next museum…No mention of its impending move?

By: StarkRG

StarkRG — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:31:01 +0000

Why couldn’t they provide a plexi-glass enclosure inside the shuttle similar to what they did with the Spruce Goose? I presume the single entrance and exit might be a safety hazard of some kind, though I’m sure someone would be able to come up with a solution (exit out, or enter through, an opened payload bay perhaps). As for being devoid of instrumentation, I doubt installing mock cockpit electronics would be a preservation issue. I’m sure that if a completely enclosed, clear plastic walkway could be constructed through the payload bay, through the cockpit, and out the door safety issues would be minimal. Perhaps for future projects.

By: Daron Ahhaitty

Daron Ahhaitty — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:43:31 +0000

Good article, though OV101 (Enterprise) was built for approach and landing test (ALT), it was always intended to be refitted as a flight vehicle. Because of the tight schedule and equipement development issues, the delivered configuration only had those subsystems installed required for ALT. Assumptions about structural loading had to be made because vibration testing on End Item 99 (the vehicle that become Challenger) were far from complete, testing on the Main Propulsion Test Article and numerous analysis efforts were on-going. When ALT ended, an engineering evaluation was performed and it determined that very little of OV101 would be usable in a flight configuration and that it was easier, cheaper and faster to convert 99 to OV-099CO. I still possess the Rockwell Internal letter that discusses 101′s shortcomings. That is why there is OV099 between OV102 and OV103. I was part of a Study back in the 90′s about converting OV101 to an unmanned cargo vehicle. That is another story…