After much political debate, the Space Shuttle program began. In 1977 the first shuttle craft was rolled out for testing. Originally, the test craft was to be named Constitution in honor of the U.S. Constitution’s bicentennial. A write-in campaign to the White House by fans of the show Star Trek, however, convinced officials to rename the craft Enterprise.

The Enterprise was used to demonstrate the ability of a shuttle to safely land like a glider. Several tests were conducted with the Enterprise being carried aloft by the shuttle carrier aircraft (SCA). The SCA was a 747 airplane modified with a mount on top to carry the shuttle. Five tests were conducted with the shuttle separating from the 747 and gliding to a safe landing back on the ground. Once landing tests had been completed the Enterprise was used in a series of ground simulations and for training purposes. Enterprise was never equipped for actual space flight but, it played an important role in initial shuttle development. In 1985 the Enterprise became the property of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

It had been six long years since Americans had flown into space with Apollo when astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W.Young flew the first shuttle into orbit. The Space Shuttle Columbia heralded a new era in human space flight. Launched on April 12, 1981, Columbia gave America the ability to carry large payloads into space and reuse the spacecraft after each mission.

Three more spacecraft were initially added to the fleet to give increased flexibility in scheduling missions. In July 1982, Challenger joined Columbia to become the second shuttle in the fleet. On August 30, 1984 the Space Shuttle Discovery was launched for the first time and became the third orbiter. Just over a year later, Atlantis was launched on October 3, 1985.

In 1986, after completing nine successful missions, the Challenger and her crew were lost in an explosion. Following this tragic accident, NASA used parts that had been set aside to make repairs to damaged orbiters to build the shuttle Endeavor. Endeavor’s first flight was on May 7, 1992.

There have been a number of milestones in the history of the Space Shuttle program. On April 7, 1984 Challenger deployed the Long Duration Exposure Facility(LDEF). LDEF contained a number of experiments designed to show scientists and engineers what the effect of the space environment would be on various materials and components over long periods of time. LDEF was recovered 5.7 years after deployment by the shuttle Columbia. Though the mission was supposed to be much shorter, the extra time proved invaluable to engineers designing the International Space Station.

STS-31 (Discovery) was the mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Not only was the initial deployment of the Hubble an important achievement but, the servicing missions that followed showed the true capabilities of the shuttle fleet to provide a platform for working in space. On one of those missions (STS-61), the crew of Endeavor returned to Hubble and corrected a major flaw in the main mirror of the telescope.

In 1995 STS-71 was notable for several reasons. The flight of Atlantis was the 100^th American manned flight into space. More importantly, however, was the objective of the mission. Atlantis docked with the Russian Space Station Mir for the first time. Two Russian crew members were transferred to the station while the three cosmonauts on the station were returned to earth. The following year STS-76 brought Shannon Lucid to the Mir station for what turned out to be a record setting stay in space for an American. There have been a total of nine Mir missions that have provided Americans with priceless knowledge needed for the construction of the International Space Station.

The Space Shuttle Program continues to provide scientists with new data about living in space. Recent missions have included the Neurolab missions to study brain and nervous system development in space, the Microgravity Science Lab to conduct experiments only possible in microgravity, and many other missions that would have been impossible before the shuttle program. While there will still be a number of scientific flights for the shuttle, much of the next few years will be focused on the building of the International Space Station. The Space Shuttle still has many years of service before the next generation of spacecraft will render it obsolete.

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