September 17

Enterprise Takes Its Name

1976 — NASA Unveils the Space Shuttle Enterprise

Time not established

On September 17, 1976, NASA formally unveiled the first completed Space Shuttle orbiter at the Rockwell International facility in Palmdale, California. The spacecraft bore a name that connected the emerging Shuttle era with one of popular culture's most enduring visions of space exploration: Enterprise.

The orbiter had originally been designated Constitution, with its public rollout deliberately planned for September 17—Constitution Day in the United States. But thousands of fans of the television series Star Trek organized a letter-writing campaign urging the White House to name the spacecraft after the fictional starship Enterprise. President Gerald Ford supported the change, and NASA adopted the name.

The connection became unmistakable at the rollout ceremony. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and members of the original television cast attended as the new orbiter emerged from its assembly building. The Star Trek theme was played during the ceremony.

Enterprise looked like the orbiters that would later travel into space, but it was never equipped for orbital flight. It lacked main engines and many of the systems necessary for a space mission. Instead, NASA built it primarily to test whether the Shuttle's revolutionary reusable spacecraft design could actually fly and land like an airplane.

Beginning in 1977, Enterprise was carried aloft atop NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Some tests kept the orbiter attached to the aircraft; during others, Enterprise was released in flight so astronauts could glide it independently to a runway landing.

These Approach and Landing Tests provided crucial information about the Shuttle's aerodynamic performance, handling, and landing characteristics. Enterprise was later used for ground testing and fit checks at facilities prepared for operational Shuttle missions.

Although Enterprise never crossed the boundary into space, the orbiters that followed—Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour—built upon what NASA learned from it.

Why It Matters: Enterprise was the pathfinder for the Space Shuttle era. Its testing demonstrated that the unusual winged spacecraft could glide through the atmosphere and land safely after returning from space. Its naming also represents a rare and memorable interaction between science fiction and actual space exploration: a fictional spacecraft inspired the name of a real one that helped prepare humanity's next generation of spacecraft.

Also on This Day

1789 — William Herschel Discovers Saturn's Moon Mimas

Observation time not established

On September 17, 1789, astronomer William Herschel discovered Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, using his enormous 40-foot reflecting telescope at Slough, England.

Herschel had completed the telescope only weeks earlier. Its primary mirror measured approximately 1.2 meters—48 inches—in diameter, making it an extraordinary instrument for its era. The telescope's light-gathering power allowed Herschel to detect objects beyond the reach of smaller instruments.

Mimas is relatively small, only about 396 kilometers (246 miles) across. Its most visually striking feature, unknown to Herschel, is the enormous Herschel crater, named in his honor. At roughly 130 kilometers across, the crater dominates the moon's appearance and gives Mimas its famous resemblance to the fictional Death Star from Star Wars.

Modern observations have revealed that Mimas is much more interesting than its battered, icy exterior initially suggested. Analysis of measurements from the Cassini mission has provided evidence that a global liquid-water ocean may exist beneath its icy crust.

Why It Matters: Herschel's discovery expanded the known Saturnian system and demonstrated the power of increasingly large telescopes to reveal previously unseen worlds. More than two centuries later, spacecraft observations continue to transform those tiny telescopic points of light into complex planetary bodies—and perhaps, in the case of Mimas, ocean worlds.

1857 — Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Is Born

Time unknown

On September 17, 1857, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was born in Izhevskoye in the Russian Empire.

Long before rockets could reach space, Tsiolkovsky worked out much of the theoretical foundation necessary to make spaceflight possible. A largely self-taught teacher and theorist, he explored concepts involving rockets, orbital travel, space stations, and human journeys beyond Earth.

His landmark 1903 paper, generally translated as “Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices,” described the use of liquid-propellant rockets for spaceflight and presented the mathematical relationship now known as the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation.

That equation relates the change in velocity a rocket can achieve to the velocity of its exhaust and the ratio between its initial and final mass. It expresses one of the fundamental realities of rocketry: a spacecraft must carry propellant to accelerate, but carrying that propellant itself adds mass that must also be accelerated.

Tsiolkovsky also envisioned multistage rockets as a practical way of overcoming this problem. Although he never built the large rockets he imagined, later engineers recognized the importance of his theoretical work.

Why It Matters: Tsiolkovsky helped establish the mathematical and conceptual foundations of astronautics decades before practical spaceflight existed. His career demonstrates that exploration often begins not with a machine but with an idea—and with someone demonstrating that what appears impossible is consistent with the laws of physics.

1962 — NASA Announces Its Second Group of Astronauts

Time not established

On September 17, 1962, NASA announced the selection of nine new astronauts, the second astronaut group in American spaceflight history.

They were Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Charles “Pete” Conrad, James Lovell, James McDivitt, Elliot See, Thomas Stafford, Edward White, and John Young.

Unlike the original Mercury Seven, all of whom were military test pilots, the new selection criteria allowed qualified civilian test pilots to apply. Neil Armstrong, a NASA research pilot, became the group's first civilian astronaut.

The nine would play central roles in Gemini and Apollo. Armstrong and Conrad would walk on the Moon. Borman, Lovell, and Anders would make humanity's first voyage around the Moon aboard Apollo 8. Stafford commanded the American spacecraft during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Young eventually walked on the Moon and later commanded the first Space Shuttle mission.

Edward White became the first American to walk in space but later died with Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Roger Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire. Elliot See died in an aircraft accident in 1966 before making a spaceflight.

Why It Matters: NASA's second astronaut group supplied many of the people who would transform President Kennedy's lunar goal into reality. Their careers linked Mercury-era experimentation with Gemini, Apollo, international cooperation, and eventually the Space Shuttle.

1996 — Shannon Lucid's Record-Setting Stay Aboard Mir Nears Its End

Crew exchange began after docking at 03:13 UTC, September 19

On September 17, 1996, Space Shuttle Atlantis, launched the previous day on STS-79, was approaching Russia's Mir space station carrying astronaut John Blaha, who would replace Shannon Lucid as NASA's long-duration resident aboard Mir.

Lucid had been living aboard the Russian station since March. Launch delays extended her stay well beyond its original schedule. By the time she returned to Earth, she had spent 188 days in space, then the longest spaceflight by an American and the longest by a woman.

September 17 itself was primarily a rendezvous day rather than the crew-exchange milestone—the Shuttle docked with Mir on September 19 UTC. For that reason, this event is better treated as contextual rather than as a principal September 17 anniversary.

 

The Bigger Picture

September 17 offers an especially clear progression from seeing other worlds, to imagining how to reach them, to preparing the people and machines that actually would.

In 1789, William Herschel used one of the largest telescopes ever constructed to discover Mimas. Humanity's relationship with Saturn was entirely observational; even the existence of the little moon had previously been unknown.

In 1857, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was born. He would spend much of his life thinking about a question that still seemed fantastic: could human beings build machines capable of escaping Earth and traveling through space?

His mathematics said yes.

In 1962, NASA introduced nine astronauts who would help put those principles into practice. Among them was Neil Armstrong, who less than seven years later would become the first human being to step onto another world.

And in 1976, Enterprise emerged from its assembly building. By then, reaching space was no longer an extraordinary experiment undertaken by a handful of pioneering astronauts. NASA was preparing a reusable spacecraft intended to make journeys between Earth and orbit a regular part of human activity.

There is also a delightful cultural thread running through the day. Tsiolkovsky imagined voyages beyond Earth when such ideas belonged largely to speculation. Generations later, Star Trek imagined humans routinely traveling among the stars. Fans of that fictional universe then persuaded their government to give the name Enterprise to a real spacecraft.

September 17 therefore captures one of the recurring patterns in the history of astronomy and space exploration:

We observe what is out there. We imagine reaching it. We determine whether the journey is possible. And eventually, we build the machines and choose the people who will try.

At a Glance

1789 — Observation time not established — William Herschel discovers Mimas, a moon of Saturn, using his newly completed 40-foot telescope.

1857 — Time unknown — Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, future pioneer of astronautics and rocket theory, is born in the Russian Empire.

1962 — Time not established — NASA introduces its second group of nine astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Pete Conrad, Jim Lovell, Tom Stafford, Ed White, and John Young.

1976 — Time not established — NASA publicly unveils its first Space Shuttle orbiter, Enterprise, at Palmdale, California.