#tailcone off

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its final landing of the Approach & Landing Test program

Date: October 26, 1977

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[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Enterprise in the Mate-Demate Device (MDD) at the Dryden Flight Research Center, with the tailcone removed.

Date: October 11, 1977

NASA ID: EC77-8705

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Enterprise glides toward the runway during her 5th and final Free Flight of the Approach Landing Test.

Date: October 26, 1977

NASA ID: EC77-8854, S77-30023, EC77-9036, EC77-9037, S77-30393, EC77-9082, EC77-8852, S77-30393

San Diego Air and Space Museum: 55780791

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[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Enterprise and 747 SCA #905 prior to Free flight 5 (ALT-16).

Date: October 26, 1977

NASA ID: EC77-8864

[lonestarflight]

Spave Shuttle Enterprise during fifth free flight.

Precise moment of separation captured by camera from a T-38 chase plane.

Date: October 26, 1977

NASA ID: EC77-9033, EC77-9060, EC77-9034, S77-30022

[lonestarflight]

"Space Shuttle Enterprise sits in a piggyback configuration atop NASA 905, a 747 carrier aircraft, prior to takeoff on the fifth and final Approach and Landing Test (ALT) free flight mission from Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC). Astronauts Fred W. Haise, Jr., commander, and C. Gordon Fullerton, pilot, later controlled the Orbiter during its two-mintue, one-second free flight and its landing - the first on a hard surface in the ALT series - at Edwards Air Force Base."

Date: October 26, 1977

NASA ID: S77-30024

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Enterprise parked on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base, following Free flight #4. This was a tail-cone-off flight.

Date: October 12, 1977

Photo posted by Ed Hengeveld on "The Space Shuttle Era 1981 to 2011 - I Lived Through It" Facebook page: link

NASA ID: EC77-8739

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[lonestarflight]

"Space Shuttle Enterprise flying during the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT-15) at Edwards Air Force Base. This was the first 'tailcone off' flight. This test was to more accurately simulate a return to Earth flight of an operational orbiter and gather more aeronautical data."

Date: October 12, 1977

NASA ID: S77-28965, EC95-43116-26

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