How Star Trek fans changed the name of NASAs first space shuttle
L: The Shuttle Enterprise with 'Star Trek' cast. From L-R: Dr. James D. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, DeForest Kelley (Dr. "Bones" McCoy), George Takei (Mr. Sulu), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Leonard Nimoy (the indefatigable Mr. Spock), Gene Rodenberry (The Great Bird of the Galaxy), and Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov). R: The Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise inside of Marshall Space Flight Center's Dynamic Test Stand for Mated Vertical Ground Vibration tests (MVGVT).Images: NASA ShareThese are the voyages of the space shuttle Enterprise, boldly renamed by former President Gerald Ford after a massive letter-writing campaign from Star Trek fans.In 1974, construction of the worlds first space shuttle, known then as Orbital Vehicle-101 (OV-101), began at Rockwell Corporations plant in Downey, California. (The city, located in Los Angeles County, is known to fast food enthusiasts as the home to the oldest operating McDonalds and the birthplace of Taco Bell.) With the debut of the spacecraft set for 1976, it was rechristened the Constitution in honor of the U.S. bicentennial.But, as Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, joked at a ceremony for the shuttle decades later, Star Trek fans can be very persuasive.Richard Nixons Prime Directive: Dont Blow the BudgetIn 1972, the Apollo program was coming to an end. If John F. Kennedy inspired the nation with his call to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, Richard Nixons rhetoric was less soaring.The space shuttle will give us routine access to space by sharply reducing costs in dollars and preparation time, he said, as reported at the time by Popular Science. In the wake of the moon landings, NASA Administrator Thomas Paine had grand visions for Americas space program. He proposed sending men to Mars in nuclear-powered spacecraft, building space stations and bases along the way, according to the The Space Shuttle DecisionAlas, interplanetary travel was not in the stars. When Robert Mayo, Nixons budget director, cut $1 billion from NASAs budget, Paine focused on a less ambitious part of his proposal: a reusable shuttle. Even that project was nearly axed by Congress for budgetary reasons, Heppenheimer wrote. Once NASA found supporters in the Department of Defense, however, the space shuttle program was on solid ground. The first shuttle, the Enterprise, would only be used for testing. It was the second, the Columbia, that had the honor of being the first space shuttle to launch into orbit. It blasted off on April 12, 1981, exactly two decades after Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.The Enterprise never traveled among the stars. But it paved the way for future space shuttles, which would spend 30 years ferrying astronauts and supplies into space, deploying satellites, and eventually making the International Space Station a reality.The Orbiter 101 Enterprise soars above the NASA 747 carrier aircraft during the second Free Flight during the Shuttle Approach and Landing (ALT) tests. Free Flight 2 took place on September 13, 1977, at Dryden Flight Research Center (now the Armstrong Flight Research Center) in California. Image: NASA 1996-98 AccuSoft Inc., All rights reservedStar Trek Lives Long and ProspersNixon announced the space shuttle program in 1972, the same year that the first Star Trek convention was held in New York City. Four years earlier, the show survived a brush with death after fan letters convinced NBC executives to renew the show for a third season. But in 1969, the same year that Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, the show was canceled. Its 79 episodes, however, would live on in syndication. When President Gerald Ford took responsibility for the space shuttle program after Nixon left office, he discovered how passionate Star Trek fans could be.In a now declassified memo, Fords advisors asked the president for approval to change the name of the Constitution to the Enterprise. NASA has received hundreds of thousands of letters from the space-oriented Star Trek group asking that the name Enterprise be given to the craft, wrote William Gorog, noting that use of the name would provide a substantial human interest appeal to the rollout ceremonies scheduled for this month in California.The memo from Fords advisors offered differing opinions on the name change. Credit: US Department of StateJim Cannon, another presidential advisor and later Fords biographer, loved the idea. It would be personally gratifying to several million followers of the television show Star Trek, one of the most dedicated constituencies in the country, he wrote.Not everyone was on board. Advisor Bob Hartmann noted that Enterprise was an especially hallowed Naval name and he thought the Navy should keep it. Another advisor, Jack Marsh, said he approved of the name itself but didnt appreciate it being chosen because of a T.V. fad.Ford chose to embrace Star Trek fandom. When the Enterprise rolled out of its hangar in 1976, an Air Force band played the Star Trek theme. Nimoy was there, along with several of his castmates, including Nichelle Nichols and George Takei. The ship would take its maiden voyage in Earths atmosphere in 1977, two years before the franchise was revived on the big screen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Today, fans can visit the real-life Enterprise on the deck of the USS Intrepid, part of the Intrepid Museum in New York City and a testament to the power of Trekkies in America.The Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise flies free after being released from NASAs 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) over Rogers Dry Lakebed during the second of five free flights carried out at the Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, as part of the Shuttle programs Approach and Landing Tests (ALT). A tail cone over the main engine area of Enterprise smoothed out turbulent air flow during flight. Image: NASA NASA/ Dryden Flight Research Center
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