The first Space Shuttle was designated OV-101 and named Constitution making its public appearance on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. After hundreds of thousands of letters from Star Trek fans the name was changed to Enterprise. On February 18, 1977 the craft completed its first captive flight followed on June 18, 1977 by the first crewed captive flight. On August 12, 1977 the Enterprise completed its first free flight and on October 26, 1977 astronauts Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton completed approach and landing test flight at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB. In 2012, the Enterprise was transported to the the Intrepid Museum in New York where it is currently on display.
Designed as a re-usable spacecraft for orbital human spaceflight, the Space Shuttle first flew on April 12, 1981. This American spacecraft system has flown more than 130 times, undergoing a variety of missions from satellite launch to space science experiments and construction and repair of space stations. The system is comprised of an external tank, two solid rocket boosters and an orbiter vehicle, which carries the crew and payload. The shuttle stack launches vertically, and the orbiter returns to Earth horizontally at the end of each mission. The shuttle has more than 2.5 million parts, making it one of the most complex machines ever built.