Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!pixar!aaa
From: aaa@pixar.UUCP (Tony Apodaca)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Space Shuttle Poster
Summary: Not a launch at all!
Keywords: Enterprise
Message-ID: <2323@pixar.UUCP>
Date: 23 Aug 88 21:09:17 GMT
References: <6808@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Reply-To: aaa@pixar.UUCP (Tony Apodaca)
Distribution: na
Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California
Lines: 25

In an ancient article, someone wrote:
>
>   Hi. I am trying to trace a certain poster that I have hanging on
>my wall. It's a night time shot of a Shuttle on the launch pad. I
>guess u would call it a frontal shot (as opposed to side shots or
>top down views). The only noticeable oddity is the WHITE fuel tank,
>
>   If anyone can tell me what shuttle flight this is, could you please
>drop a note to me?

Lots of people answered "STS-[123]", and quoted various statistics
about paint weight, etc.  Well, if the poster is the same as the
poster *I* have, (Frontal shot, white tank, well-lit shuttle but
dark gantry, and a full moon... wonderfully ironic shot then,
even more so now!) it is not a launch at all, but a test rollout of
Enterprise quite a while before STS-1.

The (not-so) secret way to tell the Enterprise from the other orbiters
(when you can't read the name on the side) is that Enterprise has
white wings and chines.  The spaceworthy orbiters have black chines
(chine == the long thin part of the wing, forward of the main wing).

-- 
UUCP:		{sun,ucbvax}!pixar!aaa		Tony Apodaca
ARPA,BITNET:	aaa%pixar.uucp@sun.com		Pixar, San Rafael, CA, USA