OV-101 Enterprise

  After taxi tests of the combination on Feb 15, the Space Shuttle and Carrier Aircraft combination took to the skies for the first time on Feb 18. Five Captive flights were carried out over the next few weeks to confirm the handling characteristics of the combination. During these flights, the Enterprise was entirely passive. In June, astronauts flew in the Enterprise cockpit for the first time, and the ship was electrically powered up during three Captive Active flights. The prime ALT team of Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton flew the first and third Captive Active flights, with the backup team of Joe Engle and Dick Truly flying the second one.

The stage was set for the most critical part of the ALT program: the first actual Approach and Landing Test flight. Haise and Fullerton were aboard as the 747 separated and dived away, leaving Enterprise in a rapid descent toward the Edwards lakebed. The first three ALT flights each lasted five minutes, and had the ferry tailcone attached. The two crews alternated, with Engle and Truly on flights two and four. ALT 4 was the first flight without the tailcone attached; the descent lasted only two minutes because of the higher drag. ALT 5 was also flown without the tailcone, and made the first Shuttle landing on the concrete Edwards runway. These two flights were the only times that the 747/Orbiter combination took to the air without the tailcone attached.

After the ALT program, four flights of the combination qualified the system for cross country ferry flights. Enterprise was then demated and modified for the MVGVT tests.

In 1978, Enterprise arrived at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. At the MSFC Dynamic Test Stand, OV-101 was mated to an External Tank (ET-GVTA) for the Mated Vertical Ground Vibration Tests (MVGVT). In a second phase, starting Oct 6, two dummy solid rocket boosters were added to the stack. The boosters were filled with potassium chloride instead of oxidizer, and the tank contained 70 tons of water. A third phase used empty SRBs and only 50 tons of water. The different phases simulated different stages in a Shuttle ascent. 

Following the completion of MVGVT, OV-101 was destacked and flown to the Kennedy Space Center for the Pathfinder test. The Pathfinder stack, consisting of SRBs GTM-4 and GTM-5 and ET-GVTA, was ready in the VAB and mated to Enterprise on 1979 Apr 24. Pathfinder was used for fit checks in the VAB and at pad 39A.

Following its return to California, OV-101 was stored at Palmdale for a year and then returned to Edwards. In May-Jun 1983 the SCA/OV-101 combination set off on its longest trip, culminating in five demonstration flights at the 1983 Paris Air Show. The following year, it spent seven months in New Orleans at the World's Fair. These public relations exercises were followed by a more serious mission, when Enterprise made the trip to Vandenberg AFB to repeat its Pathfinder role at the proposed polar SLC-6 launch complex. It was mated with the new filament wound solid rocket motors and an external tank. However, the SLC-6 complex was never used for Shuttle flights. In late 1985, Enterprise was handed over to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum for storage at Dulles Airport. A final set of tests was carried out at Dulles in 1987; OV-101 was slowly wheeled into a runway crash net to evaluate the emergency device.

1976 Mar 12		Assembly complete	Palmdale
1976 Sep 17		Rollout	Palmdale
1977 Jan 31		Road transfer	EAFB
1977 Feb 8		SCA 905 mate	EAFB
1977 Feb 15		SCA 905 taxi tests	EAFB RW04
1977 Feb 18	1630	ALT Captive 1 (2:15)	EAFB RW04
1977 Feb 22	1632	ALT Captive 2 (3:13)	EAFB RW22
1977 Feb 25		ALT Captive 3 (2:28)	EAFB RW04
1977 Feb 28	1600	ALT Captive 4 (2:11)	EAFB RW04
1977 Mar 2	1600	ALT Captive 5 (1:39)	EAFB RW22
1977 Jun 18	1506	ALT Cap Active 1A (0:56)	EAFB RW22
1977 Jun 28	1450	ALT Cap Active 1 (1:02)	EAFB RW22
1977 Jul 26	1447	ALT Cap Active 3 (1:00)	EAFB RW22
1977 Aug 12	1504	ALT 1 SCA takeoff	EAFB RW04
	1549	ALT 1 free flight (0:05:23)
	1554	ALT 1 touchdown	EAFB RW17
1977 Sep 13	1500	ALT 2 SCA takeoff	EAFB
	1549	ALT 2 free flight (0:05:28)
	1554	ALT 2 touchdown	EAFB RW15
1977 Sep 23	1500	ALT 3 SCA takeoff	EAFB
	1545	ALT 3 free flight (0:05:34)
	1550	ALT 3 touchdown	EAFB RW17
1977 Oct 12	1445	ALT 4 SCA takeoff	EAFB
	1550	ALT 4 free flight (0:02:34)
	1552	ALT 4 touchdown	EAFB RW17
1977 Oct 26	1500	ALT 5 SCA takeoff	EAFB
	1550	ALT 5 free flight (0:02:01)
	1552	ALT 5 touchdown	EAFB RW04
1977 Nov 15		Ferry Trial 1	EAFB RW04/22
1977 Nov 16		Ferry Trial 2	EAFB RW04/22
1977 Nov 17		Ferry Trial 3	EAFB RW04/22
1977 Nov 18		Ferry Trial 4	EAFB RW04/22
1977 Dec 12		MVGVT mods begin
1978 Mar 3		MVGVT mods complete
1978 Mar 10		SCA 905	EAFB
1978 Mar 10		SCA 905	Ellington AFB, TX
1978 Mar 13		SCA 905	Redstone Field, AL
1978 Mar 14		To MVGVT test stand	MSFC
1978 Apr 3		MVGVT Phase I, ET mate
1978 Jul 31		MVGVT Phase I end, demate
1978 Sep?		ET/SRB stack
1978 Oct 6		MVGVT Phase II
1978 Nov		MVGVT Phase II end part 1
1979 Feb		MVGVT Phase II cont
1979 Mar		MVGVT Phase II end
1979 Apr 10		SCA 905	Redstone Field, AL
1979 Apr 10		SCA 905	KSC SLF
1979 Apr 24		Mate to Pathfinder	VAB3
1979 May 1	1330	Rollout	LC39A
1979 Jul 23	1423	Rollback	VAB
1979 Aug 10		SCA 905	KSC SLF
1979 Aug 10		SCA 905	Atlanta, GA
1979 Aug 11		SCA 905	St Louis, MI
1979 Aug 12		SCA 905	Tulsa, OK
1979 Aug 13		SCA 905	Denver, CO
1979 Aug 14		SCA 905	Hill AFB, Ogden, UT
1979 Aug 15		SCA 905	Vandenberg AFB
1979 Aug 16		SCA 905	Edwards RW04/22
1979 Aug 23		SCA demate	EAFB
1979 Oct 30		Road transfer	Palmdale
1981 Sep 16		Road transfer	Edwards
1982 Jan		Scales test	EAFB
1983 Jan		Air bag tests	EAFB
1983 May 16		SCA	EAFB RW04/22
1983 May 16		SCA	Peterson AFB, CO
1983 May 18		SCA	McConnell AFB, KS
1983 May 18		SCA	Wright-Patterson AFB, OH
1983 May 19		SCA	Goose Bay, Labrador
1983 May 19		SCA	Keflavik, Iceland
1983 May 20		SCA	RAF Fairford, UK
1983 May 20		SCA	Bonn-Koln, FRG
1983 May 24		SCA	Le Bourget, Paris
1983 Jun 1		SCA	Roma
1983 Jun 2		SCA	Le Bourget, Paris
1983 Jun 3		SCA Air show	Le Bourget, Paris
1983 Jun 4		SCA Air show	Le Bourget, Paris
1983 Jun 5		SCA Air show	Le Bourget, Paris
1983 Jun 5		SCA	Stansted Airport, England
1983 Jun 7		SCA	Keflavik, Iceland
1983 Jun 8		SCA	Goose Bay, Labrador
1983 Jun 8		SCA	Ottowa, Ontario
1983 Jun 10		SCA	Dulles Airport, VA
1983 Jun 13		SCA	Sheppard AFB, TX
1983 Jun 13		SCA	Edwards AFB
1984 Mar 22		SCA	Edwards AFB
1984 Mar 22		SCA	Vandenberg AFB
1984 Mar 28		SCA	Little Rock AFB, AR
1984 Mar 29		SCA	Brookley Field, Mobile, AL
1984 Apr 2		Road transfer	Mobile USCG
1984 Apr 3		Barge 'Paul Bunyan'
1984 Apr 5		New Orleans World Fair
1984 Nov 3		Barge 'Paul Bunyan'
1984 Nov 5			Mobile USCG
1984 Nov 5		Road transfer	Brookley Field
1984 Nov 10		SCA	Kansas City, MO
1984 Nov 13		SCA	Edwards AFB
1984 Nov 16		SCA Pathfinder	Vandenberg
1985 Jan 25		FWC stacking starts
1985 Feb 16		Mate to ET-23/SRB	SLC6
1985 Mar 8		Demate	SLC6
1985 May 24		SCA	Edwards
1985 Sep 20		SCA	Edwards
1985 Sep 20		SCA	Kelly AFB, TX
1985 Sep 20		SCA	KSC SLF
1985 Nov 18		SCA	KSC SLF
1985 Nov 18		SCA	Dulles
1985 Nov 18		Transfer to NASM
1987 Jun 8-12		SOAS runway tests
2012 Apr		Transfer to Dulles
2012 Apr 27		SCA	T/O from Dulles
		SCA	Land at JFK New York