SHUTTLE TURNS 25 REVOLUTIONARY SPACECRAFT'S FIRST-EVER LANDING RECALLED.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - On a hot clear morning at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center 25 years ago, an odd-looking aircraft dubbed Enterprise glided to a smooth landing on Rogers Dry Lake's hard clay surface.

That was the first space shuttle landing - not from orbit, but from the top of a modified Boeing 747 airliner that took the engineless Enterprise to about four miles up and let it go.

``How the orbiter would fly was a big question,'' recalled astronaut Gordon Fullerton, who was in the Enterprise's cockpit 25 years ago Monday, along with Apollo 13 veteran Fred Haise. ``It flew nicely.''

Space shuttle landings seem unsurprising now, but a quarter-century ago nothing so big - more than 180 feet long - had ever come back from space - at least not in one piece.

And nothing with wings - other than the much smaller X-15 rocket plane - had ever flown back from space to land like an airplane.

Previous spacecraft - the American Mercury, Gemini and Apollo ships, and Soviet craft - had all been tiny capsules that landed by parachute.

The Enterprise was built to see how the space shuttles would perform at slow speeds during their glides to a landing. Once it is out of orbit, a shuttle must get to its landing site without engine power. If it misses its first pass, there is no second chance.

Enterprise was taken aloft by a modified Boeing 747 jetliner from an Edwards runway Aug. 12, 1977 to make its first attempt at flying back to Earth. It was the first of five such flights that would give the National Aeronautics and Space Administration confidence that it could safely return its shuttle astronauts from space.

``The smooth landings you see now with every orbiter flight are the direct result of these simulations,'' said Fullerton, a former Air Force fighter and bomber pilot who after the Enterprise test flights went into space on shuttles Columbia and Challenger.

To prepare for the space missions that would begin with Columbia's first flight in April 1981, NASA conducted a series of tests with the Enterprise as a sort of dress rehearsal.

The flight test program was conducted in three phases. The first phase took the unoccupied Enterprise aloft atop the 747. If there was a problem, the 747 pilots could jettison the shuttle.

Once those tests proved successful, flights were conducted with crews aboard the orbiter. During those flights, with the craft bolted atop the 747, the Enterprise's crew made small movements of the controls to make sure they worked.

Capping the test program were five ``free'' flights, when Enterprise flew itself back to Edwards. The flights were divided among two crews: Fullerton and Haise performed flights one, three and five and pilots Joe Engle and Richard Truly performed flights two and four.

The sight of the huge Enterprise mounted atop the 747 was outlandish at the time, although common for Antelope Valley residents today.

``This was a new-configuration airplane,'' said retired NASA pilot Fitz Fulton, who flew the 747 for the tests along with pilot Tom McMurtry. ``It was the world's largest biplane.''

A special escape system was designed by engineer Bill Albrecht for the 747's crew. A slide was installed from behind the cockpit to the bottom of the plane. At the slide's bottom, small explosive charges were planted to punch a hole in the aircraft's skin for the crew to parachute out of.

To ensure the crew would be able to get out even if the aircraft were in a spin, a rope with knots in it was installed for the crew to pull themselves along.

The system was never needed and it was immediately removed after the flight tests to save weight.

Mounted atop the 747, Enterprise was 66 feet off the ground. To get into the shuttle, the crew had to use a ``cherry picker'' crane.

``As we were taxiing out we were looking eye-to-eye with the guys in the tower,'' Fullerton said.

On the Aug. 12, 1977, test flight, done before an audience of more than 67,000 people, the 747 carried Enterprise to about 25,000 feet above Edwards. The 747 went into a slight dive at about 400 mph. At 8:48 a.m., the 747 crew radioed: ``Launch ready.''

Haise radioed back: ``The Enterprise is set; thanks for the lift.''

The Enterprise crew hit a button setting off seven explosive bolts that connected their craft to the 747 - literally dropping the jetliner.

The shuttle turned to the right, the 747 turned left.

``Everything occurred like in the simulations,'' Fulton said.

Once cleared of the 747, Enterprise's nose tipped downward and the craft began the 5 1/2-minute flight to Rogers Dry Lake.

After four smooth test landings, the fifth flight presented NASA with a surprise.

While the first four flights ended on huge Rogers Dry Lake, the fifth landing was to end on Edwards' concrete runway, and the crew was to aim for a designated spot. The idea was to prove that the orbiter could be safely brought down at airfields other than Edwards.

During the approach, the Enterprise came in a little faster than planned and Haise deployed the orbiter's speed brakes, trying hard to hit the designated touchdown point.

A software glitch in which roll commands lagged fractions of a second behind started Enterprise wobbling from side to side.

Videotape of the landing shows the orbiter bouncing off its main landing gear back into the air and then coming back down and bouncing again before it finally touched down for the last time.

Among the spectators that day was Britain's Prince Charles, who earlier in the week had ``flown'' the orbiter simulator.

During one of his simulator landings, Prince Charles had the shuttle wobbling - it's called ``pilot-induced oscillation'' - similar to what Haise and Fullerton experienced for real.

``The only person who felt good was Prince Charles,'' Fullerton said of the fifth landing. ``It looked as bad as his landing.''

The incident showed the value of flight testing. The test pilots found a potentially serious problem rather than having an unsuspecting shuttle crew discover it returning from space. A software filter to correct the problem was developed.

Fullerton, Truly and Engle would all eventually fly other shuttles in space. Truly and Engle have since retired. Fullerton is still active as a Dryden test pilot.

The Enterprise is now at the Dulles International Airport just outside Washington, D.C. Eventually, it will get a home in a new annex being built at the airport for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) Standing on steps leading to the Boeing 747 shuttle carrier at Edwards Air Force Base recently are five past and current NASA employees who played roles in the 1977 shuttle approach and landing tests. From top are Bill Albrecht, retired NASA engineer; Joe D'Agostino, Dryden shuttle support office chief; Fitz Fulton, retired pilot; Gordon Fullerton, astronaut; and John McTigue, retired shuttle landing test project manager. Above, NASA astronauts Fred Haise, left, and Gordon Fullerton flew the shuttle Enterprise on its first landing on August 12, 1977. Top, the space shuttle prototype Enterprise separates from its 747 carrier before gliding to a landing during a 1977 test.

(5) Retired NASA pilot Fitz Fulton, left, and astronaut Gordon Fullerton took part in the shuttle Enterprise's first landing.

NASA

Jim Skeen/Daily News