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NASA's first space shuttle was meant to be named Constitution -- a nod to the United States Bicentennial that year. But a write-in campaign by "Star Trek" fans prompted President Gerald Ford to change his mind.
Instead, the orbiter was called Enterprise, like the TV show's starship. That's why members of the "Star Trek" cast and crew, including Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Gene Roddenberry, could be seen among the crowd at the shuttle's September 1976 unveiling.
They can also be seen, sporting quintessentially 1970s sartorial style, in one of the 450 previously unpublished and rarely seen images featured in University Press Florida's new book, "Picturing the Space Shuttle: The Early Years." The publication chronicles the shuttle program from 1965 until 1982, ending just a year into the spacecraft's operational life.
"Most of the shuttle books that are available try to do too much and cover the entire program," said co-author John Bisney in a phone interview. "And when you have 135 flights over 30 years, that's difficult to condense into one book."
Bisney's book, which he co-authored with J.L. Pickering, instead offers a unique view into the early development of the shuttle, the world's first reusable spacecraft, with a wealth of outlandish sketches and drawings of alternative designs -- some of which still look remarkably futuristic.
"Some of the early concepts involved having the booster rocket also come back and land like an airplane, automatically," Bisney said. "Unfortunately, it turned out to be pretty complicated."
Instead, the booster rockets splashed into the ocean after detaching from the shuttle, to be recovered and refurbished. A modern rocket like SpaceX's Falcon Heavy has booster rockets that can autonomously descend back to Earth and land.
The shuttle -- officially called STS, or Space Transportation System -- first flew into space on April 12, 1981, with the distinction of having not been tested with an unmanned launch first. Astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen flew the orbiter, Columbia, for 54 hours before landing safely back on Earth. The book's timeline ends after the fourth space shuttle mission, a test flight that paved the way for operational missions.
Source: CNN.com
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