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Author
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Topic: Prototype Enterprise: missing main engines?
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Myron
New Member Posts:
From:
Registered:
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posted 04-10-2013 03:26 AM
   
I see the space shuttle Enterprise often and am confused about whether it has the three engines on its tail as the other shuttles do. Since it never flew into space, it needed no engines. It merely was a glider. If the tail cone was removed, what would be underneath, three engines or just a large, blank area? |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1463
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 04-10-2013 06:33 AM
It had engine simulators because to perform as a test glider for the shuttle program, it would need something to reflect the same mass and center of gravity (cg) — and even aerodynamics — of engines. Otherwise, it would not fly with the same software or responses. |
Headshot
Member Posts: 864
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 04-10-2013 06:42 AM
Not a blank space. The space was occupied by replicas of the main and OMS engines, or at least their exhaust bells and thrust chambers.Engineers wanted to replicate the aerodynamic flow of an actual orbiter during descent to test the controls. I may be wrong, but I believe the engines' weights were mimicked by ballast so Enterprise would balance just like a real orbiter too. |
Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 04-10-2013 10:36 AM
In the shots I've seen (and taken) of Enterprise head-on with Discovery, Discovery seems to sit lower than Enterprise. Is this because Enterprise was made to weigh the projected 150,000 pounds of an orbiter (as well as not having real main engines) and the spaceworthy orbiters weigh more? |
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