Tested Visits the Space Shuttle Enterprise

During our visit to the Intrepid Museum in New York, we came face to face with the Space Shuttle Enterprise and learned how NASA's tests on the Orbiter prototype paved the way for all the other Orbiters that followed. We were just not prepared for the incredible size of the Shuttle.

[@gabrielbennett5162]

My late grandfather, Vic Horton, was the original flight engineer for the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft from the start of the Shuttle program until his retirement in 1986. He was involved in all the Enterprise flight tests in 1977. During the first free flight, Fitz Fulton (747 command pilot) had Grandpa running the trajectory calcs for the release by hand; Fitz didn't completely trust the computer numbers and from their many YF-12 and SR-71 Blackbird flights together, he knew he could rely on Grandpa's math.

[@southernstyle8835]

That’s awesome!

[@kevinburke6055]

Wow awesome god bless him.

[@GESSO217]

"Let's make sure that history never forgets the name... Enterprise"

[@Tim4706]

I've followed the Space Shuttle Program all my life from the first tests with Enterprise when I was 8 years old to the last mission with Atlantis at 42 years old to see the shuttle itself for the first time was an incredible sight I shed some tears when I saw her just the immense scale of the vehicle was incredible and I also got to touch the main landing gear just touching the vehicle itself brought it all full circle for me it's an experience I'll never forget I learned so much about the shuttle over the years I may not have been able to fly it but it's not because I didn't know how the Intrepid Air and sea museum have some great plans for Enterprise and I can't wait to see the Enterprise again when the new shuttle Visitors Center is completed awesome!!! awesome!!! awesome!!!

[@violacrb]

"There's a whole other story that goes with those [tiles]" "Well, tell us the story!" Thank you, Norm! Terrific response!

[@1kalambre]

Sign of a good interviewer.

[@ashuku]

This is awesome, I love that you guys get to do videos like this now!

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

I think the tailcone deserves to be displayed with Enterprise; it was an important part of Enterprise's mission, and Enterprise was the only one (to my knowledge) that wore the tailcone in independent flight.

[@Zoomer30]

She was also a "fit check tool" for 39A at KSC and SLC-1 at Vandenberg.

[@jsmith1746]

Yeah, it is too bad that part of the story was omitted from this clip. You can get some great pictures of Enterprise in launch configuration from both KSC and Vandenberg. It also spent time at the Marshall Spaceflight Center to go through vibration testing to ensure the shuttle could withstand the forces during launch. Enterprise was really a valuable and dynamic part of the shuttle program for over 40 years, even though it never made it to space.

[@rud]

Great video.

[@VaporheadATC]

The B-2 bomber also has the same heat tiles. They are extremely light and brittle. You can take a blow torch to them, turn them red, but they still wouldn't burn you because they dissipate heat so fast.

[@merryweather3713]

Now I want to do that and possibly give myself a third degree burns. Still cool, though.

[@tveirken1]

Hope NASA comes with the next generation soon...

[@VaporheadATC]

They are still going with the Orion module....nothing with wheels though.

[@faithful2b1]

you mean Dream Chaser

[@alexh.6362]

I’m 13 and really want to work for NASA so I’m drawing blue prints of what I hope is the next generation shuttle fleet

[@NP-rh3dt]

I really hope the space shuttle doesn't die out, I'm especially glad with the SNC _Dreamchaser_, may the space shuttle live on for eternity

[@sayssimon5995]

Amazing!!!!!

[@nmi5]

When I went to the intrepid I was blown away by this. ITS SO BIG! It looks big on screen but in person it is 5x bigger!

[@swestervelt]

What a tease... .Curator keeps talking about all the catwalks inside connecting all the compartments...... Leave a camera with the curator and get him to send it in the next time a crew goes in for maintenance....... We'd gladly watch a part 2.

[@TheUntoldTruth1003]

Yall are lucky. I saw enterprise 15 years ago at the space museum in Virginia. It is amazing.

[@maicod]

even Tested was not allowed inside :(

[@goo_90]

Imagine seeing that! A real one!

[@autumncolours8602]

shuttle bus service to the moon from the space station. Bucket list.

[@MattJohno2]

Funny, Intrepid is also a ship in Star Trek. Now all we need is a ship named Defiant.

[@ArieVisker]

It's so cool that sir E. Boehm prenoucing all of the shuttles as "She" or "her".

[@jaydee5156]

She never made it to space, but she did get to fly. I saw her in New Orleans at the World's Fair in 1984 and in 2008 at Udvar-Hazy near D.C.

[@JellyMan3634]

Damn such a shame, hopefully it can be restored.

[@sgtpepper1138]

From Wiki: A letter-writing campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek. Although Ford did not mention the campaign, the president, saying he was "partial to the name" Enterprise, directed NASA officials to change the name.

[@robadams8057]

I thought I'd heard the name "Constellation" for a shuttle at some point.

[@ianlombardo9758]

@@robadams8057 Enterprise was originally named Constitution

[@Tim4706]

Here is a interesting side fact Enterprise was not built as her namesake when she was first built she was originally named Constitution when she was first displayed to the public but a successful write in campaign made by the fans of Star Trek made NASA to change the name to Enterprise to be named for the starship on Star Trek.

[@sgtpepper1138]

I was really bummed that the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, Or didn't get one of the shuttles. They had an AMAZING area setup for it, in a newly built structure that they built for spacecraft.

[@ChuckMahon]

I don’t understand, why were you not inside shuttle Enterprise giving a review - ?

[@saturnproductions1827]

Chuck Mahon you can’t go inside yet

[@chang-kp9sp]

People of NASA did great job that no other countries would dreamed of .

[@FiNiTe_weeb]

Wouldn't it be awesome if someone bough all existing shuttles and prototypes, then put flown shuttles onto pillars resembling the external fuel tanks and boosters, and the prototypes just chillin' on the ground?

[@TeamXOzone]

space shuttle endeavour is being integrated in a mock shuttle stack using et-94 I believe and 2 unused SRBs in the California science center

[@dinostudios6579]

California Science Center has Endeavor and is going to be put on an et and two srbs. Can’t wait to see that.

[@mikesly5]

I wanted to see the inside!

[@stevec7445]

Actually there is a shuttle you can walk under just like that. The Endeavor

[@redhillmedia]

Wow amazing and interesting video. Good work guys

[@mikeylawrey]

that's what I thought. Why don't we get an inside look? ;-(

[@skyprop]

8:29 not the Only shuttle. US, yes but Buran went to the Paris airshow too!

[@Zoomer30_]

STA-098 was not meant to fly into space until they found it would be too costly to convert Enterprise to become space worthy, so they converted STA-98 and named it Challenger.

[@christopherwaits7852]

STA-099 was Challenger

[@Jake-tw1zw]

I’ve been inside a space shuttle and the exact 747 that carried the Enterprise

[@XTrollxArchX]

THE ENTERPRISE BETTER BE FIXED!!

[@JellyMan3634]

in the hurricane was any of enterprise damaged?

[@joeleeman9886]

this old dude trying so hard to validate his poor old shuttle that never saw the light of space, gotta give him credit, he loves his gig.

[@user-go3ks9tf4f]

IIRC, the Gemini spacecraft was actually reused :D

[@goo_90]

Really?

[@thekidfromcleveland3944]

@@goo_90 yes Gemini 2 to be exact. It was used as the second flight test of the gemini program. And on the one and only test flight of MOL in 1970. For this flight a circular door was added to the heat shield. Both flights were unmanned though. The shuttle is the worlds first reuable space vehicle in terms of of carrying people on consectutive missions.

[@adamsemergian2614]

at 2:30 the only two that he names are the only 2 that are destroyed along with there crew.

[@kevinburke6055]

That because those r the most known shuttles obviously cause of the disasters.

[@WacoedeUnplugged]

That's a hold-over from ships, anything inanimate we name gets refereed to in the feminine prose, including ships like the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), the USS Ronald Regan (CVN-76) and the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77). so not creepy at all

[@louisporcellini3756]

I only wished she went where no man has gone before

[@michaelgrey7854]

Pity they do not explain how the Shuttle was only a part of a planned system that included space stations and manned missions to the planets. Then Budget cuts came along. The Shuttle amazing at it is, did not advance our space exploration.

[@LepisX]

6:00, get mythbusters onto it!

[@jonswiftlive3179]

why didnt we see more b-roll why this guy was talking, would have this far more interesting? thanks

[@AttilaTheHun333333]

jon swift live agree

[@BeastOfTraal]

I saw her in New Orleans at the Worlds Fair

[@cljohnston108]

Yes, the pavilion was shredded, and the tip of the rudder was broken off.

[@mche7214]

the software is a mystery ,change one thing and you have to figure it out yourself what is going to happen to the pressure and could there be a blank on the spreadsheet.

[@christophertaylor87]

00:03 They could have at least tried to make the vinyl look good with no air bubbles.

[@renanfeitosa101]

I wonder how is the interior of the enterprise

[@v12tommy]

Nice display, but I still think that a shuttle, should have gone to Houston and not New York. There is no NASA tie in to New York, meanwhile tons of people and visitors to NASA in Houston, and no shuttle.

[@russellbluewolf6427]

+v12tommy there are those who believe that NASA chose the places for the shuttles due to purely political influence..Houston got a shuttle(a mockup) and the 747 that ferries the shuttles (both are sitting outside in the weather)..its a real sore spot for the people who work at Johnson space center and around that area to not get a shuttle like they were promised..

[@metropod]

+v12tommy "There is no NASA tie in to New York" that's not true at all. New York built the Apollo Lunar Module, out is suburban Bethpage, and yet Enterprise is the closest thing the largest city in the country gets to flown NASA hardware to display.

[@VaporheadATC]

Houston has a full high fidelity mock up of the shuttle right before you go in the gates. It's quiet beautiful.

[@TheShmuTube]

v12tommy Houston didn't get a shuttle because they didn't try. For Endeavour, it was between LA and Houston. California helped build the shuttles and when it came to to it, they put forth a plan to display it and preserve it. Yeah, some in Houston thought it would be nice but they never put forth any effort to get it. Had they, Endeavour would be sitting there right now.

[@russellbluewolf6427]

I think it's a shame houston never put any effort to get a shuttle ..they just bitched when we didnt..

[@jamesm3897]

Does it still have cockpit interior?

[@AndrewSmoot]

Unless NASA stripped it, which they might have, since they've stripped a lot of the non-essentials from the other shuttles now on display, yes, Enterprise still has an intact cockpit. Though, her interior wasn't as filled out as the other shuttles eventually became, since she didn't need a lot of the avionics, or crew capacity, that the other shuttles needed. With a lot of the aircraft/spacecraft on that are on display, the various agencies that give their aircraft/spacecraft to museums strip, and/or permanently disable, all non-essential systems from the craft, it makes them lighter to transport, and ensuring that any daredevils cannot hijack them from the museums.

[@OLBastholm]

Is it seriously called the Enterprise?! That's a lot of years too soon!

[@Argoon1981]

+OLBastholm Why the surprise? Do you think the Star trek story is a real recount off our future? No wonder the first ever space "ship" would be called Enterprise many Trekkie's were working at NASA.

[@OLBastholm]

+Argoon1981 I had just never heard about it, and it was surprising to me, but as you say; it does make perfect sense.

[@KorradoXan]

+OLBastholm the prototype was originally to be christened the constitution but then the nerds rose up as one and demanded the name be changed to the enterprise in honor of the star trek ship via letter writing campaign. it was a big event, the cast and crew of the original series was in attendance.

[@ericabneri903]

+KorradoXan Like my dad!

[@s70driver2005]

+OLBastholm Also in the US Navy there have been 6 ships with the name Enterprise so actually the name is much older than star trek dating back to the revolution all the way to the newest Enterprise which was CVN-65, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier.

[@gavinmckibben3521]

So they talk about it and everything but they don't let you look inside😑

[@_JeffMart]

I was wondering why in the last Intrepid Museum video you had pretty much nothing about the space shuttle! Should have guessed it would have it's own video.

[@tekuriouslabs3765]

I want to build it in KSP

[@Smennyboy]

What I wouldn't give to be able to sit in the pilot seat in that thing, if only for a second

[@thomasackerman5399]

There is longer any seating in the orbiter crew compartment, long with the flight controls and systems that were removed for use on the other vehicles.

[@theq4602]

I remember reading a book where these guys hijacked a shuttle and jury rigged it to go to the moon. That book was fucking crazy.

[@sync232]

And for everything else there's Kerbal Space Program.

[@bbhebe]

Just think of how many times he has to tell that Columbia story... Lol fuck that

[@sgtpepper1138]

True, but it's temporary and I'm sure they'll fix it.

[@Andrew-sq9yw]

lol 2020... capsules still bring astronauts back

[@oceanpacific886]

Save the Buran!!!

[@detritus10001]

Did this kid really throw some sass on the Columbia and Challenger comment? Jesus, son. People died on those ships.

[@elpatriotaLX]

LOL that's what I thought. I don't know if he did it intentionally or just because those are the most famous (in a bad way).

[@aferguson850]

my teddy bear the lives in a magic shoe box

[@sydd183]

Lmao troll😈

[@Crazyreseller]

Would have like to see norm go inside with the cameras. Kinda boring just watching the guest talk.

[@danl5501]

Rob Bowman yes

[@lukerobinson9646]

Well only two of them broke up in the fkin atmosphere, *BORAT VOICE - Great Success!....Naaaaat!

[@wazda6488]

Out of a 135 flights

[@XTrollxArchX]

21 other museums, Enterprise got the wrong 1

[@cljohnston108]

Care to be more specific?

[@saneman8147]

May as well have been talking outside on the pavement.

[@piyawansook9352]

NASA เทพโคตร

[@fireflysclan5359]

Pause at 2:45 Lol

[@ILSRWY4]

B.S. A freaking Aircraft carrier has a shuttle and the worlds largest Science museum in the western Hemisphere (Chicago Science and industry) doesn't. Note to you buddy, it ain't your fancy letter that got the shuttle, its your location that got it... NEW YORK, Politics at its best.

[@southernstyle8835]

Dude, shut up and let the guy speak!

[@MarkMiller-zm2th]

Oooooohhhhj,

[@guerra_dos_bichos]

why is a shuttle a "she"?

[@jacklovell3115]

+Brainiaco Most aviation and sea-faring vehicles are christened as "shes"

[@joeym.546]

+Brainiaco Most vehicles are referred to as females, don't really know why, but most sea, air, and some land craft are referred to as females. Odd but tradition.

[@andysledge]

+Brainiaco You treat her like a woman, you love her and care for her , that kinda thing

[@Tetemovies4]

Amiral Nimitz knew why we call them she ;)

[@strawberyyicecreamdream216]

+Brainiaco Because you go inside it.

[@Sander001Che]

Space Shuttle Enterprise? Isn't it the Star Ship Enterprise?

[@Arazand]

Hihi that conspiracy theorist...

[@josephmeredith7436]

None of the shuttles went to space.