To Boldly Name… With the first space shuttle ready to be unveiled in September 1976, President Ford was asked to approve the craft’s name before meeting with NASA administrator Dr. James Fletcher. Fans of “Star Trek” had sent NASA hundreds of thousands of letters requesting that the space shuttle be named “Enterprise” after Captain James T. Kirk’s starship. Several of the President’s advisers also noted that the name had a long association with U.S. Navy vessels dating back to the Revolutionary War. President Ford officially signed off on the name “Enterprise” on September 8, 1976. View documents about the naming of the Space Shuttle “Enterprise” from the Presidential Handwriting File at http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0047/phw19760908-01.pdf
-from the Ford Library
Ten years to the day after Star Trek premieres on television (September 8, 1966), President Gerald Ford officially signs off on the name “Enterprise” for the first Space Shuttle on September 8, 1976:
Interesting #TodayInHistory for Trekkies!


















