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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kK2xkyXjW4&feature=related

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NASA Transfers Enterprise Title to Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City

NASA transferred title and ownership of space shuttle Enterprise to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum during a ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 11, at the museum in New York City. The transfer is the first step toward Intrepid receiving Enterprise in the spring of 2012.

"NASA is proud to transfer the title of space shuttle Enterprise to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum," said NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden. "The U.S.S. Intrepid had a rich history with NASA's mission, and Enterprise – the pathfinder for the Space Shuttle Program – belongs in this historic setting. Enterprise, along with the rest of our shuttle fleet, is a national treasure and it will help inspire the next generation of explorers as we begin our next chapter of space exploration."

Bolden announced April 12 that Intrepid was one of four institutions nationwide to receive a shuttle. Enterprise, which was the prototype vehicle and used in NASA's approach and landings tests, will move from the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center to New York. The shuttle will be flown from Washington to JFK International Airport atop NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. It then will be transported during the summer of 2012 by barge to the Intrepid museum complex located at Pier 86 of the Hudson River Park, and placed on the Intrepid's flight deck under a protective covering. The public will have the ability to see the shuttle while visiting the museum.

At the Dec. 11 ceremony, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said, "As we take our first steps on a path toward a new era of space exploration, we want to ensure that the treasures of our past achievements inspire generations of leaders – the people who will visit asteroids, walk on Mars and launch the next science satellites to explore our solar system and peer beyond it. It's NASA's pleasure to transfer to Intrepid the title to the space shuttle Enterprise. With the last flight of the Space Shuttle Program in July, the shuttle era came to an end, but that won't stop these marvelous spacecraft from inspiring millions of people from around the world who will visit them in the geographically diverse areas that will house them. The orbiters won't stop being part of the fabric of America."

Enterprise rolled out of the Palmdale, Calif., manufacturing facility in September, 1976 and was used to test critical phases of landing and other aspects of shuttle preparations. The Approach and Landing Test, or ALT, program involved both ground tests and flight tests. Enterprise conducted 16 flight tests, from taxi to active free flight. The ground tests included taxi tests of the 747 shuttle carrier aircraft with the Enterprise mated to it to determine structural loads and responses and assess ground handling and control characteristics up to flight takeoff speed. The taxi tests also validated 747 steering and braking with the orbiter attached. A ground test of orbiter systems followed the unmanned captive tests. All orbiter systems were activated as they would be in atmospheric flight in final preparation for the manned captive flight phase. Five captive unmanned flights of the Enterprise mounted on its carrier with its systems inert were conducted to assess the structural integrity and performance handling qualities of the mated craft.

Three manned captive flights followed with astronauts operating the orbiter's flight control systems while the Enterprise remained atop the 747. These flights were designed to exercise and evaluate all systems in the flight environment in preparation for the free flights.

NASA astronauts Fred Haise, Gordon Fullerton, Joe Engle and Dick Truly took turns flying the 150,000-pound spacecraft from February through November 1977 and demonstrated that the orbiter could fly in the atmosphere and land like an airplane.

At Marshall Space Flight Center between March 1978 and March 1979, Enterprise was mated with the external tank and solid rocket boosters and was subjected to a series of vertical ground vibration tests.

At Kennedy Space Center, it was brought to the launch complex, stacked on the mobile launch platform and used to train for maintenance and crew escape procedures.

In later years, Enterprise made an appearance at the Paris Air Show, with stops in Germany, England, Italy and Canada. Enterprise also was put on display in April 1984 at the World's Fair in New Orleans. Enterprise has been to more NASA centers and other places around the world than any other orbiter. In 1985, NASA transferred Enterprise to the National Air & Space Museum.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/transition/placement/enterprise_transfer.html

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http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2128.html

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Next Gen Shuttle-Capable vehicle interest as secret effort to save orbiters ends

For the past several months, a plan to restart shuttle operations – funded by billions of dollars of secured non-government investment – was under evaluation with NASA and shuttle contractors prior to the secret effort ending last week. However, the group behind the effort have now switched their focus to a "Next Generation, Shuttle Capable" vehicle – with details to be announced next year.

The Final Effort To Save Shuttle:

It was an emotional final three flights of the shuttle fleet, with the beginning of the end marked by Commander Steve Lindsey's "Get ready to witness the majesty and the power of Discovery as she lifts off one final time" speech over the flight loop moments before the start of STS-1332s mission, with the flying days ended by Commander Chris Ferguson's personal tribute to the fleet after Atlantis' wheels stop, thanking them for protecting the crews.

As millions watched these final flights launch and land, each time marked by the emotional sound of the orbiter's Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) being extinguished of life for the final time, the public started to realize the United States – and indeed the world – was losing the most capable space vehicle ever built.

While NASA went into a public relations overdrive to try and emphasize that America's loss of its domestic crewed launch capability was only going to be for several years, political and public disappointment that NASA funding would be spent on buying taxi rides on Russian Soyuz vehicles to an International Space Station (ISS) mainly constructed and paid for by the United States, was main concern.

Eventually, commercial crew capsules, such as SpaceX's Dragon will be able to ferry astronauts to the ISS, but not until after the middle of this decade. Even under the current best case scenario for commercial crew and cargo, a return to the full capability enjoyed by the shuttle will never be regained via the current commercial suitors.

However, behind the scenes, details of a major proposal were revealed to NASASpaceflight, pointing to what was the last – but by far the most comprehensive – attempt to return the Shuttle to flight operations.

The plan – held under an agreed embargo by this site's editor, so as not to damage negotiations – involved billions of dollars of private investment being pumped back into shuttle operations, saving Atlantis and Endeavour to return to flight operations no earlier than the end of 2014.

Even before Atlantis had landed for the final time, opponents to shuttle extension were citing the problem of key contractors shutting down, all based around President Bush's decision to retire the fleet following the completion of ISS assembly. This challenge would have been partially mitigated by potential changes to the contracts and mechanisms used by NASA during the Space Shuttle Program (SSP).

"One of the advantages of our purely commercial approach is that it allowed our engineers to consider alternative suppliers and advances in manufacturing, materials, processing, and production across the globe and across several industries," noted Dr. Mary Lynne Dittmar, who helped lead strategic development and served as the primary government and industry liaison for the team designing the restart plan.

"Our objective was to benefit the Commercial Shuttle venture by implementing best of breed systems engineering and risk assessment and maintaining a focus on shortening the post-flight-to-flight processing cycle while upholding safety as the prime consideration."

While Discovery was officially removed from flight status during the evaluations, along with the Shuttle Program being handed over to Transition and Retirement (T&R) operations, Endeavour and Atlantis remained in a flow which did not technically preclude a stay of execution.

It was also these two orbiters which were the focal point of all recent "extension" studies (L2 Link to documentation), ranging back to the Augustine Commission into the future of Human Space Flight (HSF) and continued through to the United Space Alliance's interest in commercial operations of the orbiters via NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) awards.

The United Space Alliance (USA) also submitted a proposal this year (L2 Link), one which called for funding of a study to finalize the architecture for a Commercial Shuttle Transportation Service (CSTS). But that proposal did not go forward.

By way of removing one of the major barriers to previous commercial proposals – government funding – members of the new team allied with potential investors both in the United States and in Europe, which proved to be the breakthrough for the new proposal to approach NASA.

"A number of potential investors were contacted, and one of those was Kevin Holleran – a businessman and investor from London, England. Kevin was sufficiently interested to enter into a process of due diligence and eventually decided he would invest in the concept. He then set about identifying individuals and organizations that would be critical to the success of the venture and the building of a credible plan.

These included former NASA scientists and officials, notably ex-Deputy Center Director and former Director of MOD Randy Stone, who introduced Kevin to Dr. Dittmar as someone with substantial political, industry and operational expertise within the space industry.  The team then evolved, ensuring many complex elements of a restart plan were evaluated.

Over time the concept developed toward a full "go forward" plan, based around a return to flight operations returning at a gradually increasing pace, notably wiping out the majority of the US domestic launch capability gap, before hitting the pace of four flights per year in 2017.

Based on "available demand" – details of which are proprietary – it was anticipated one flight would have taken place at the end of 2014, then two in 2015, three in 2016, and four a year beginning in 2017.

The major difference between the team's concept and the extension studies of the past was the cost impact to NASA. It had always been a central problem for the Agency, where it simply could not afford to pay for everything it wanted to do – specifically the continued flight of the Space Shuttle and the development of the next generation exploration vehicles.

This proposal partially removed that barrier, as explained by Dr Dittmar.

"In previous proposals, NASA was asked to put a substantial amount of funding into the effort – anywhere from $500M to over $1B a year, basically to subsidize the commercial effort as well as to purchase services from the Commercial Shuttle organization.

"In our case, however, Private Investment, individuals, as well as institutional investors and banks, came to the table with significant startup funding for refitting the Orbiters, refurbishing processing facilities, starting up production lines, etc.

"However, one of our guiding principles was a "non-interference/no negative impact" policy with regard to existing NASA programs and another was that a commercial shuttle would require rapid access to infrastructure in order to be responsive to the market.

"Much more of the infrastructure had been repurposed toward the existing NASA Programs of Record than we knew when we began.  In the end, it became obvious that this  is one of those situations in which even very substantial funding could not address these issues sufficiently.

"NASA's support of the discussions was invaluable in helping everyone fully understand the 'facts on the ground', while at the same time encouraging the team's interest in space. We are also grateful for the support of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who advocated a thorough consideration of the initiative from early on in the process."

The End Of The Restart Effort:

The orbiters continue to be cared for at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), a facility which has already started to transition towards the 21st Century Launch Complex – the name given for the conversion of the Florida spaceport into a future home for the Space Launch System (SLS) and commercial vehicles.

One Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) is being redesigned to host the flow requirements of Boeing's CST-100 capsule, resulting in one orbiter taking her turn to enjoy a vacation inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

Unlike Discovery, whose wings have effectively been clipped by the decommissioning of her OMS Pods, Atlantis and Endeavour have not reached a point of no return – at least not during the evaluations.

Via the construction and evaluation of the restart proposal, the team was aware of the programmatic, technical and operational issues which required resolution before returning the orbiters to flight operations, not least because the vehicles will be changing call signs from Agency to Commercial spacecraft.

The plan was to request NASA issue a "stop order" on further T&R work for Atlantis and Endeavour, allowing for a several month period to finalize solutions to all known challenges relating to restart.

Via the discussions with NASA, the main problem did not prove to be the technical ability to return the two orbiters to flight, nor the often-used dark cloud of crew safety. The roadblock in the plan – a plan which remained in discussion between the team and NASA until this week – was the transition to SLS.

This is ironic, given one of the most expansive shuttle extension studies via the Augustine commission into the future Human Space Flight resulted in former astronaut Sally Ride presenting findings that a preferred transition be the extension of space shuttle operations through until around 2015, providing the follow on program worked with an element of commonality with Shuttle's hardware. (L2 Link to Documentation)

Despite it taking over two years for NASA to finally announce the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV) configuration as one which was Shuttle Derived, it came after the last flight of the Shuttle Program. Regardless, Sally Ride's plan did fail on costs, which showed NASA funding simply could not afford to continue flying the space shuttle at the same time as developing the new vehicle, a key component which would have been mitigated by the new proposal.

In the end, it was the amount of "repurposing" that has already taken place for SLS which resulted in agreement with NASA that any potential return of the Space Shuttle was no longer viable, ending the discussions.  Whether the technical issues could have been overcome will therefore never be known.

"During the past few months, a last ditch attempt to re-fly the Space Shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis under a truly commercial banner has finally come to an unworkable conclusion," noted Mr. Holleran in a statement to NASASpaceflight.com.

"A group of space interested investors and technical and operational experts have been working quietly in the background with NASA and major Shuttle suppliers to look at the feasibility of operating the Shuttles commercially. Despite the best efforts of all involved it was simply too late.

"Much of the infrastructure has already been disassembled, or repurposed for SLS and opportunity is lost."

Despite the setback, Mr. Holleran added the group is now refocusing its efforts on a next generation vehicle, one which includes the numerous advantages of the Space Shuttle's capabilities. This effort is now in work behind the scenes, ahead of an announcement next year into the outlines of the new system.

"This space interested investment group has now switched its focus to a next generation Space transportation vehicle with Shuttle capabilities," added Mr. Holleran. "The group hopes to make announcements as to its intentions end of the first quarter of 2012."

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/12/next-gen-shuttle-vehicle-secret-effort-save-orbiters-ends/