WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

S79-31980 (1 May 1979) --- Space shuttle orbiter 101 Enterprise makes its first appearance mated to supportive propellant containers/boosters cluster, as it is slowly rolled out the front door of the huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center en route to the launch pad, some 3 ½ miles away. It will move slowly there atop this large mobile launch platform. The Enterprise is to undergo several weeks of fit and function checks on the pad in preparation for STS-1, on which its sister craft Columbia will take astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen into space for a 54-hour test mission.