Test Flight

Of The
Space Shuttle Orbiter
“Enterprise”

National
Aeronautics and
Space
Administration

NASA
Space Shuttle
Approach and Landing Tests

A new era in space transportation begins

thisyear at the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration’s Dryden Flight
Research Center with initial flight testing
of the Space Shuttle Orbiter. These first
tests consist of a series of low altitude
approach and landing flights to verify the
aerodynamic and flight control charac-
teristics of the Orbiter, the reusable
spaceplane of the next two decades.

This flight program is divided into three phases;

the inert captive phase during which the Orbiter
will simply ride, unmanned, on the back of the

747; the captive active phase in which the

Orbiter will be manned but not released; and
the free flight phase when the Orbiter will be
manned and released.
The approach and landing tests will be con-
ducted at Dryden, which is located at Edwards
Air Force Base, California. Edwards has a paved
runway 15,000 feet (4572 meters) long by 300
feet (91 .4 meters) wide in addition to extremely
long and wide dry lakebed runways.

Orbiter spacecraft Enterprise is hoisted in the mate/demate facility for at-

tachment to mating struts on the Boeing 747 carrier aircraft.
Phase 1

Phase 1 begins with taxi tests with the Orbiter

atop the carrier aircraft, and proceeds to six
flights which will carry the Orbiter to altitudes of
25,000 feet (7620 meters). These tests will
check the performance, stability and control,
and general safety of the two-aircraft combina-
tion.

Phase 2
During the six captive flights of Phase 2, two
NASA astronauts will be aboard the Orbiter to
help verify the most favorable separation tech-
niques, refine crew procedures and evaluate the
operation of the Orbiter’s integrated systems.

Like the Roc in the legend of Sinbad, the carrier aircraft boosts Enterprise
into the air — captive aerodynamic flight measurements, and later
first for

for gliding flights back

to the runway in test of the Orbiter’s landing system
and handling characteristics. The carrier aircraft will also serve as a ferry
for moving Orbiters from the West Coast to Kennedy Space Center for or-
bital launches.
Phase 3
Eight free flights are scheduled for Phase 3. For
the final three flights the tail cone installed
around the main engine nozzles to improve
aerodynamic performance during testing will be
removed. The Orbiter will be released from the
carrier aircraft at altitudes in the vicinity of
22,000 feet (6705 meters) and flown “dead
stick” or unpowered, to landings on the runways
at Edwards Air Force Base.
All approach and landing testing is scheduled
for completion by early 1978.

In mid-1 977, Enterprise will leave the protection of the carrier aircraft for

steep gliding flights to the Dryden Flight Research Center runways as the
astronaut crew proves her ability to fly in the atmosphere. Enterprise will
touch down at more than 200 miles per hour.
The Carrier Aircraft
The Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft was
purchased by NASA
the summer of 1974 and
in
modified at the manufacturer’s plant in Everett,
Washington. The 231 -foot-long (70.4 meters)
aircraft has had the majority of its seats and
passenger accommodations replaced by equip-
ment and instruments required for the Orbiter
test flights, and has been reinforced as neces-
sary to compensate for the weight and stresses
of the Orbiter. Three struts or pylons, two aft and
one forward, have been added to the top of the
747 to which the Orbiter will be attached with
explosive bolts quick release at the required
for
time. This special airplane willbe used for the
approach and landing tests and to ferry the
Orbiters from the assembly plant to test and
launch locations as necessary.

The first —
landing approach has to be right there is no “going around” as
Enterprise is lined up for landing on the runway and dry lakebed. The Or-

biter’s landing gear be lowered a few short seconds prior to

will
touchdown. Orbiters returning from orbital missions will land on runways
at Kennedy Space Center and at Vandenberg AFB in California.
Space Shuttle Orbiter Crews
The two 2-men crews chosen by NASA for the Space
Shuttle Approach and Landing Test (ALT) flights are:
Fred W. Haise, Jr., commander, and Gordon Fuller-
ton, pilot; Joe H. Engle, commander, and Richard H.
Truly, pilot. Haise and Fullerton are scheduled for the
first ALT mission.

The crews train for flights using a NASA T-38

aircraft with special speed brake, a modified twin-jet
Gulfstream (known as the Shuttle Training Aircraft),
II

the Shuttle Procedures Simulator, and the Orbiter

Aeroflight Simulator.

HAISE, 43 (civilian), commander of

the crew, was selected for the
first

astronaut program in April 1 966. He

was backup lunar module pilot for
Apollo 8 and 1 1 lunar module pilot
,

for Apollo 13, and backup com-

mander for Apollo 16.

FULLERTON, 40 (Lieutenant Col-

onel, USAF), pilot of the first crew,
was one USAF Manned Orbit-
of the
ing Laboratory Program crewmen
selected for the astronaut program
in September 1969. He was a
member support crews
of the for

the Apollo 14 and 17 missions.

ENGLE, 44 (Colonel, USAF), com-

mander of the second crew, was
selected for the astronaut program
in April 1966. He was a member of
the astronautsupport crew for
Apollo 10 and the backup lunar
module pilot for the Apollo 1.4 mis-
sion. He made 1 6 flights in the X-1
rocket-powered research aircraft
while a USAF test pilot at Edwards
AFB.

TRULY, 39 (Commander, USN),

pilot for the second crew, was one
of USAF Manned Orbiting
the
Laboratory Program crewmen
selected for the astronaut program
in September 1969. He was a
member of the support crew for all

manned Skylab missions.

three
747 Carrier Aircraft Crew
Crew members for 747 carrier aircraft are
the
Fitzhugh L. Fulton, and Thomas C. McMurtry,
Jr.,

pilots; Victor W. Horton and Louis E. Guidry, Jr., flight

test engineers. Fulton, McMurtry and Horton are from
the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and Guidry
is a flight engineer from the NASA Johnson Space

Center.

Fulton McMurtry

Horton Guidry

Fulton is a veteran multi-engine test pilot with wide

experience as a launch pilot. He was launch pilot fo;

the X-15 and for manned lifting bodies, as well as on
other experimental aircraft flight test programs. He
was an XB-70 project pilot for NASA and the USAF.
Currently Fulton is co-project pilot on the triple-sonic
YF-12 flight research program.

McMurtry has been flying experimental aircraft for

NASA since 1967. As project pilot on the Supercriti-
cal Wing, he made the first flight with the new airfoil
shape. He has flown as co-project pilot on the Digital
Fly-by-Wire aircraft and the Supercritical Wing
F-111, and as co-project pilot on NASA’s 990 and
C-141 multi-engine aircraft.

Horton is flight test engineer on the YF-12 at

DFRC and has flown as launch-panel operator of the

B-52 air-launch aircraft. Guidry of JSC has flown as
test engineer on the C-135 Zero-G studies and the
C-130 Earth Resources aircraft.
The Space Shuttle System
The Space Shuttle System is composed of the
and
Orbiter, an external tank that contains the fuel
oxidizer to be used by the Orbiter’s three main
engines, and two solid rocket boosters. The Orbiter
and boosters are reusable; the external tank is ex-
pended on each launch.
The Orbiter is the vehicle which will carry the
crew and the payloads into space. With an empty
weight of 150,000 pounds (68,000 kilograms), a
length of 122 feet (37.2 meters) and a wingspan of
78 feet (23.8 meters),
* it is about the size of a
medium-range jetliner.can deliver to orbit
It

payloads up to 65,000 pounds (29,484 kilograms) in

its 15- by 60-foot (4.5- by 18-meter) cargo bay, and

return from space with payloads of up to 32,000

pounds (14,515 kilograms). Each Orbiter is designed
to perform these tasks a minimum of 100 times.

The Enterprise
Enterprise the Orbiter to be used in the Dryden
,

flight test program, is the first production article of

the Shuttle program to come off the assembly line.
It was named by public demand for the "starship”

in the TV series Star Trek, which in turn derived it’s

name from two great aircraft carriers of the U.S. Navy.

The Enterprise has been under construction since
June 19, 1974. Its principal parts come from many
aerospace contractors across the nation. The crew
module and aft fuselage were fabricated by the prime
contractor, Rockwell International Space Division,
Downey, California; the mid-fuselage (cargo bay) by
General Dynamics, San Diego, California; the wings
by the Grumman Aerospace Corporation of
Bethpage, New York; and the tail assembly by the
Fairchild Republic Company, Farmingdale, New York.
The Enterprise was transferred from the Rockwell
International assembly plant at Palmdale to the
NASA Dryden Center on January 31 1 977. After com- ,

pletion of the approach and landing tests, the first

Orbiter will be ferried to the NASA Marshall Space
Flight Center at Huntsville, Alabama, atop a specially
configured Boeing 747 for extensive ground vibration
tests. It will return to Palmdale early in 1979 to pre-
pare for its first orbital flight, and be ferried to the
launch facility at the Kennedy Space Center in March
of 1 981 The first actual orbital mission of the Space
.

Shuttle, scheduled for March of 1979, will utilize the

still un-named second Orbiter.