My grandfather worked at Lockheed when the shuttle was first being built, they did a lot with the launch systems. This orbiter was used for approach and landing tests. No one had seen these pictures before and as a 5 year old I was really mad when people told me it was a model!
The Constitution was later re-named Enterprise (thanks to Trekkies) but it was still Constituion when these photos were taken (75 I think)
** NOTE - I was corrected, this photo is actually a full-scale mockup in Downey, California, from February 27, 1975. Sorry for the error, but I got these photos when I was 5 and the story clearly got a bit distorted.
Eridony, chopshopstore, eyemage, and 43 other people added this photo to their favorites.
anewmanagn 27 months ago | reply
These are fantastic photos that show the orbiter built with a couple aerodynamic features that wouldn't survive further consideration: OMS pod fairings on the cargo bay doors and a forward RCS that is not a removable module and apparently would have had doors covering the thrusters during launch and landing.
aharvey2k 27 months ago | reply
Yes, the pod fairing is odd, and unnecessarily complicated. The RCS doors are kinda cool, but again, another thing that could break. I wish I had more of these photos, but the fact that a 5 year old kept even these 2 in good condition is pretty amazing.