Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos

Page 63


KSC Open House - SLF With Enterprise on 747 (Original Scan)


KSC Open House November 1985

Kai running toward the 747/Orbiter parked at the SLF.

Oh the joys of being a little kid when there's oodles of cool stuff to check out!


November, 1985, Open House at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Shuttle Landing Facility. Space Shuttle Enterprise OV-101 (Orbiter Vehicle 101) sits on top of the 747 Carrier Aircraft that was used to ferry the orbiters cross-country, as part of their construction effort, testing, and operational flights. NASA would occasionally open their restricted facilities to badged employees and such friends and family as could fit into a single passenger car, to allow everyone to visit places and see things that they would otherwise never be giving the opportunity to do so. Enterprise was used in the first free flight tests, where it was taken to altitude by the 747 and released, allowing it to descend to the ground and land on a runway in the same manner as operational Space Shuttles would descend and land, following an orbital mission. The designation “OV-101” indicates that the original intent was to convert Enterprise into an operational Space Shuttle following its testing phase, but that never happened. Further engineering studies revealed that its wings would encounter structural loads during re-entry from orbit above and beyond what was originally expected, designed for, and built, and which would have dictated that the wings would need to be removed, rebuilt, and reattached, and this turned out to be more expensive and time-consuming than converting Structural Test Article STA-099 into a space-worthy vehicle, and that’s what was done, and STA-099 became OV-099, the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Top: (Reduced)

Kai MacLaren runs gleefully toward OV-101, Enterprise, perched atop its 747 Carrier Aircraft at the south end of the runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, during a NASA Open House which was held in November, 1985.
And you run!

And you run toward the impossible marvel that's even more impossibly sitting right there before your disbelieving eyes, across the shimmering expanse of sun-blasted concrete, just as fast as your legs can carry you!

And dad hangs back. And lets you run. And grabs a single lucky frame of you as you race away from him into the distance, free as a bird, flying on wings of joy.

And there before you, Enterprise sits serenely on top of its 747 Carrier Aircraft, perched high above the landscape all around... waiting.

And you see this, and you feel this, and you know this, and yet none of it can be true.

None of it can be possible.

But it is.


Center: (Reduced)

The Space Shuttle Enterprise, OV-101, looming above the tarmac at the south end of the runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, perched atop the 747 Carrier Aircraft which was used to ferry orbiters cross country.
Enterprise. OV-101.

When assembling these photo-essays, I came to this image, and was unable to recall exactly which orbiter it was that we're looking at here, and I zoomed in as much as I could, looking at the name on the side of the orbiter, left and slightly below the cockpit windows, but was unable to make it out.

And so I asked my son Kai, who, as I write these words, is 42 (and of course that would make him The Answer to Life, The Universe, And Everything, now wouldn't it?), if he knew which orbiter is is, and since he really is 42, he supplied me with the following via email, and I quote:

"You may already be aware, but originally the plan was that after the flight tests at Edwards and then the vibration testing at MSFC, Enterprise was going to be returned to Palmdale to be upgraded into a space worthy vehicle. However, as they were initially building Enterprise, they were learning as they went, and they eventually realized that the wings were going to experience greater loads than originally predicted. By that point the wings had been built and attached to the fuselage. They figured they'd deal with this problem when they got around to upgrading it for spaceflight since it wouldn't be an issue for the atmospheric flight tests. But the fix would have required dismantling the orbiter and shipping the wings back to Bethpage, NY where they could be rebuilt and strengthened by Grumman. Then they would have had to ship the wings back to Palmdale to reattach them to the orbiter. NASA didn't have the money to do this so they modified STA-099 instead. Since it was originally just the basic orbiter structure for loads testing, there was less to dismantle and rework, so the costs would be lower."

And please remember that we're talking about a little kid who was seven years old when these pictures were taken, and it's been just a smidge less than thirty-five full years since these pictures were taken, and he remembers this shit, in detail, and sometimes I love him more than can possibly be described, and sometimes he scares the living hell out of me, and all times he's redoubtable in the extreme without giving away the least hint of it via his exterior appearance or mannerisms, and... Whoa.


Bottom: (Reduced)

Enterprise and its Carrier Aircraft at the south end of the runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
And then you move over some, locate yourself with care, try your best to make sure you're in exactly the right spot, and you make an attempt to capture the otherworldly symmetry, grace, and beauty of the thing towering before you.

And you know you never will, but you make the effort anyway, because to not have at least tried would be a tragedy, and it would have been a tragedy against the day the attempt was made, and it would have been a tragedy against all those future days which would have come... and gone... without this humble witness to the moment as you and your son experienced it, in the presence of power vast beyond comprehending, of energetic power, of human organizational power, of human spirit.

And the autumn sun of Florida beats down relentlessly upon all beneath it, and you listen to Kai as he points... and talks... and asks questions that you may or may not be able to give proper answers to, and when you cannot you tell him, you inform him instead that you do not know, and it kindles within him the desire to find out for himself, and the belief that he can find out for himself, and the belief in his own spirit...

And it is good beyond all reckoning. All imagining. All ability to communicate it.


MacLaren's Images & Stories
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