Space Shuttle OV-101 in Boilerplate Configuration
First in March 1978 at the Marshall Space Flight Center and then again in June 1979, the Space Shuttle Enterprise was fitted together with an external tank and two inert solid rocket motors in a test-bed or boilerplate configuration. The STS-1 preliminary mission test program consisted of vibration tests in a horizontal mode at the Marshall Center, and then in a vertical launch configuration on Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. In 1985, the boilerplate configuration was used to test the Air Force shuttle facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base, including a full mating on the SLC-6 launch pad.
Read more about this topic: Boilerplate (spaceflight)
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