>That brings up a kinda interesting "Where Are They Now?" question. OV-098 Pathfinder | Partially destroyed on ground in the World War IV/North American War sack of Huntsville, Alabama, where it had been on display for many years. Scheduled for restoration. |
OV-099 Challenger | Destroyed in flight: 1986.01.28. Interestingly, there is a replica of OV-099 in the Imperial Klingon Space Flight Museum on Klinzhai Prime, in the wing whose title is usually translated, The Conquest of Space Must Be Paid For in the Blood of Heroes. |
OV-101 Enterprise | On display: Smithsonian Institution's Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, DC. Facility captured and recaptured several times during the North American War, but never seriously damaged. |
OV-102 Columbia | In private hands. Has had by far the most colorful career of the STS orbiters; currently to be found in Hangar 27 at Mathews Memorial Spaceport in New Avalon. |
OV-103 Discovery | On display: John F. Kennedy Memorial Spaceport, Merritt Island, Florida, Earth. |
OV-104 Atlantis | On display: Vulcan Science Academy, Vulcan. |
OV-105 Endeavour | On display: Cheryl A. Zukowsky Flight Test Center, Muroc III. |
OV-106 Endurance | On display: Earth-Salusia Friendship Center, H.M. Naval Station Salu II. |
A few notes:
- Enterprise went on to make the first flights by an Earth-built spacecraft to another star system, visiting Centauri Prime in 2002, Vulcan in 2004, and Andoria in 2007.
- After Contact, Columbia, Atlantis and Endeavour were refitted for long-range in-system exploration. Through much of the 21st century, they carried out the surveys that would eventually lead to the terraforming of much of the Solar system. Columbia later went on to have numerous other, less officially sanctioned adventures.
- Endurance was launched - having taken four years to build, about 20% from spares and 80% new construction - in 2010 to undertake the first mission by an Earth-built ship to go outside the Centaurus sector, to Salusia. She had a faster hyperdrive than the rest of the class (factor 1.5) and considerably greater fuel and provisions range, along with the most advanced computers ever fitted to an STS orbiter.
- Because they were registered for and participated in interstellar spaceflights, both Enterprise and Endurance are entitled to the designation "starship" and the name prefix "UES" (United Earth Ship).
- The only member of the fleet still in its original orbiter configuration is Discovery, which, as NASA's most-traveled spacecraft, was retired and preserved in that state deliberately to help show off the agency's pre-Contact history to visitors.
- There are persistent conspiracy theories that Enterprise (variously) is hidden somewhere in the Zeta Cygni system, was lost in a flight mishap that was covered up, or was taken away and destroyed at Largo's order during the War of Corporate Occupation, and that the one on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center is a fake. No evidence to substantiate these assertions has ever been found.
--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.