Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Shuttle from Vandenberg
Message-ID: <1989Feb20.230155.14518@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <919@cs.rit.edu> <1989Feb11.234744.20258@utzoo.uucp> <2481@phred.UUCP> <1989Feb17.164009.3238@utzoo.uucp> <47@enuxha.eas.asu.edu>
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 89 23:01:55 GMT

In article <47@enuxha.eas.asu.edu> kluksdah@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Norman C. Kluksdahl) writes:
>My memories indicate that Enterprise was a prototype vehicle for the purpose
>of glide testing, and possibly integration testing...  seems to me that
>Enterprise was never intended for spaceflight.

I was around and paying attention at the time, and the official word from
NASA, in the beginning, was most definitely that Enterprise was meant to
be refurbished into a spaceworthy orbiter.  They may perhaps not have meant
this, but they definitely were saying it.

The change in plans for Challenger, nee test article OV-099, was definitely
a *change* in plans, as they noticeably reduced the test stresses in order
to be sure that the airframe would still be fit for flight.
-- 
The Earth is our mother;       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
our nine months are up.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu