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Jan. 31, 1977: A horse and rider watch as the space shuttle Enterprise is towed from a Rockwell International facility in Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base for a year of flight tests. Townspeople lined the route for a glimpse of the 110-ton shuttle. A 90-wheel transport was used and accompanied by a 20-vehicle convoy.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times

Palmdale — Sept. 17, 1976: The shuttle Enterprise rolls out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities with "Star Trek" cast members. From left: NASA Administrator Dr. James D. Fletcher, DeForest Kelley (Dr. "Bones" McCoy), George Takei (Mr. Sulu), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), show creator Gene Roddenberry and Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).

PHOTOGRAPH BY: NASA

Sept. 17, 1976: The Enterprise is rolled out for the public. This photo was published the next day on Page One of the Los Angeles Times.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times

Feb. 18, 1977: The NASA 747 carrying the Enterprise space shuttle lands at Edwards Air Force Base following a two-hour maiden flight.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times

Aug. 12, 1977: Dawn finds the space shuttle Enterprise getting a last-minute checkup in a gantry prior to its first free flight during its test program.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Con Keyes / LA Times Archive/UCLA

Edwards Air Force Base — Aug. 12, 1977: At the end of its first successful free flight, the space shuttle Enterprise leaves a trail of dust. The craft rolled over two miles before stopping.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: R. L. Oliver / Los Angeles Tmes

Oct. 13, 1980: The space shuttle Enterprise in its hangar at Edwards Air Force Base.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Thomas Kelsey / Los Angeles Times

Feb. 19, 1985: The space shuttle Enterprise is on the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base during testing of a West Coast shuttle launch facility, which was never used.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: George Fry / Los Angeles Times

Chantilly, Va. — Sept. 16, 2004: Enterprise undergoes restoration in the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The center, at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va., is a companion facility to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

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Jan. 31, 1977: A horse and rider watch as the space shuttle Enterprise is towed from a Rockwell International facility in Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base for a year of flight tests. Townspeople lined the route for a glimpse of the 110-ton shuttle. A 90-wheel transport was used and accompanied by a 20-vehicle convoy.

Never fitted with engines or a working heat shield, the Enterprise was not launched into orbit — it was only used for testing. The craft was used in a series of approach and landing tests — carried aloft in a 747, released and glided to landings at Edwards. Later the Enterprise was used for static tests in Alabama and California.

Los Angeles Times science writer George Alexander covered the public introduction of Enterprise. In the Sept. 18, 1976, edition, he reported:

To the theme music from the now-defunct television series “Star Trek,” the National Aeronautics and Space Administration rolled out the first Space Shuttle vehicle at Palmdale Friday and proclaimed the start of a new era in space transportation.

“Ain’t she a beat?” said NASA Associated Administrator John F. Yardley as the big black, white and gray spaceship was towed around the corner of a hangar at Rockwell International Corp.’s Palmdale facility and brought to a halt before a crowd of about 2,000 people…

….some of the actors who appeared in the “Star Trek” series were present. President Ford recently yielded to the petitions of many “Trekkies,” as devotees of the series call themselves, and named the orbiter “Enterprise” after the fictional spaceship flown by the “Star Trek” crew.

Space agency officials had planned to name the space shuttle “Constitution” both in honor of the historic U.S. document and in honor of the early American warship, but were overruled at the last minute by President Ford.

In 1985, Enterprise was transferred to the Smithsonian Institute.

Current plans are for the shuttle Discovery to go to the Smithsonian, with the Enterprise being transferred to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City. The retired Endeavour shuttle is scheduled to come to the California Science Center in Los Angeles by the end of 2012.

All of the images in the above photo gallery were taken by Los Angeles Times photographers except one — the “Star Trek” cast is from NASA.

Additional images from NASA are in this space shuttle photo gallery.

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