ALT:rollout

The rollout of a new aircraft is somewhat like the entrance of a queen, and NASA was ready to celebrate with a brass band and plenty of red, white, and blue bunting. In keeping with the Bicentennial, the orbiter was to be christened â€œConstitutionâ€. But one well-connected space buff, Richard Hoagland had other thoughts.Â Hoagland had worked as a science advisor within Walter Cronkiteâ€™s organization at CBS and was intimately associated with the fans of the TV series Star Trek. He, as well as many others within the community, considered that OV-101 should be called â€œEnterprise,â€ after the starship, and persuaded his fellow Trekkers to bombard the White House with a hundred thousand letters that demanded this name.

Here indeed was the voice of the people, a voice that President Gerald Ford could not ignore. Within NASA, some officials disliked that name, as it suggested a link between the shuttle program and the television series. Others supported it, asserting that it would give the program ready recognition. The final choice, however, was Fordâ€™s. On September 8, 1976, he had a 45-minute meeting with NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and gave his assent.

The name â€œEnterprise,â€ illustrious in U.S. naval history, has been given to the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier,to a World War II carrier,and to an American frigate in the Revolutionary War. The name â€œConstitutionâ€ has met with objections that the shuttle is considered an international effort in which several countries would participate.

Referring to the Star Trek letter campaign, Aviation Week magazine commented on the â€œpower of an aroused involved public â€“ especially in an election year.â€ The Washington Star in an editorial said it was â€œpatheticâ€ that the public desire for drama in outer space had not been killed by the mundane discoveries on Mars, Venus, and the Moon, and predicted that â€œnothing exciting will happen in the real-life Enterprise,â€ even though the naming incident confirmed a public desire â€œto associate space with adventure and suspense.â€

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The rollout took place on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976, just before 11:00 a.m. PDT. Two thousand people showed up, some of them driving from Los Angeles along the Antelope Freeway. Morning mist was in the air along that route; mountains stepped into the distance in tiers, successively hazier and less distinct. Smog and drizzle had threatened for several days to spill over into the high desert from the Los Angeles basin, but on rollout morning the weather at Palmdale was ideal â€“ clear, light wind and comfortably warm.

Three-level workstands had been pressed into service as camera platforms for still, motion picture and television cameramen behind the invited guest seating area. Others of the 185 newsmen covering the rollout sat in the press section near where Orbiter Vehicle 101 came to a halt behind a star-spangled tractor. Nearby the reentry-smudged Apollo 14 Command Module sat on a dolly as a link in the evolution of spacecraft.

Special guests that morning included Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who was flanked by several members of the showâ€™s cast â€“ actors Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Walter Koenig. They all had very gratified smiles as the orbiter, white and black with the name â€œEnterpriseâ€ prominent on its side, came into view from behind a wall and the Air Force band of the Golden West, in fact, played the Star Trek theme music.

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The Space Shuttle â€œis probably the best investment the United States Congress has ever made,â€ U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater (R-Arizona) said, speaking before the assembled crowd. â€œWe are on the verge of a new era,â€ the senator said. â€œThe Space Shuttle will present us a remarkable opportunity to explore the new frontier of space for the benefit of all mankind.â€

Goldwater was one of several dignitaries who spoke at the unveiling of the Enterprise, the first reusable Space Shuttle vehicle. Keynote remarks were made by NASA Administrator James Fletcher, who called the event â€œa very proud momentâ€ for the agency. â€œWith the Space Shuttle program, Americans and the people of the world have made the evolution to man in space â€“ not just astronauts,â€ he said.

The administrator noted that while shuttle crews must meet rigorous standards, â€œpassengers can qualify with normal good health.â€ The shuttle is â€œthe natural progressionâ€ of all our space programs and insures that â€œman has entered the environment of space permanently,â€ Fletcher said. This reusable transportation system, which combines the best features of spacecraft and aircraft, â€œwill carry the technology of many countries to benefit this nation and all the nations of the world,â€ the NASA administrator concluded.

U.S. Rep. Olin E. Teague (D-Texas), chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology, told the group, â€œToday marks a major milestone in our space program. This is the first in a fleet of space vehicles which will enable usâ€¦ to greatly enhance life here on Earth.â€ Teague praised both government and industry efforts for making possible, for the first time, â€œlow cost, routine access to space.â€

The rollout program was opened by John F. Yardley, Associate NASA Administrator for the Office of Space Flight, who acted as master of ceremonies. U.S. Senator John V. Tunney (D-California) welcomed the guests to California. He called the shuttle â€œthe gem of American space exploration for the next decadeâ€ and noted the practicality as well as the â€œchallenge and adventureâ€ of the program. Willard F. Rockwell, Jr., board chairman of Rockwell International, predicted â€œone of the most exciting chapters in American historyâ€ in the productive use of space that the shuttle would make possible.

Following a local welcome by U.S. Rep. William M. Ketchum (R-California), special guests were introduced. These included from JSC, Director Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., program officials Robert F. Thompson, Aaron Cohen and Donald K. â€œDekeâ€ Slayton, and ALT crewmen Fred W. Haise, Joe H. Engle, Charles G. Fullerton and Richard H. Truly.

When all the speeches were over and the band had packed away their instruments, Enterprise became a backdrop for hundreds of you-take-my-pictures, Iâ€™ll-take-yours tableaux. Spectators were surprised at the orbiterâ€™s size. With a length of 122 feet and a wingspan of 78 feet it is about as large as a DC-9 airliner. People were free to walk beneath it and touch it.

The scene was repeated the following day on a much larger scale as Enterprise was rolled out of the hangar again and parked on the ramp for the general public and for Rockwell International employees. Meanwhile, work crews were already relocating telephone poles and Joshua trees in preparation for the overland move of OV-101 from Palmdale to Dryden Flight Research Center in January 1977.