Enterprise "Space" Shuttle

[Gregory M. Paris]

In the recent Star Trek special that included "The Cage" Patrick Stewart talks
about NASA's Enterprise shuttle (I hesitate to call it a space shuttle since
it never went into space) and how it got its name. He says that NASA bent to
the pressure of a large number (400,000?) of Star Trek fan letters demanding
that the shuttle be named Enterprise. Yet, I seem to remember that at the
time of the vehicle's test flights, NASA said it was named Enterprise to
indicate that the shuttle program was going to be a money-making program; the
spirit of enterprise being the spirit of profit. Of course, now we know that
was a bunch of baloney, so has NASA conveniently revised history to claim
their motivation was Star Trek?

[Followups have been directed to rec.arts.startrek.]

--
Greg Paris <g...@rayssd.ray.com>
{decuac,gatech,necntc,sun,uiucdcs,ukma}!rayssd!gmp

I must be here sleepwalking, mustn't I?

[Paul L Schauble]

As I heard the story, the NASA's intention was that the first flying shuttle
would be named Enterprise, to carry on that tradition. The letter writing
effort changed that. If this is true, I do wish Bjo had bothered to check a
bit further before charging off.

++PLS