According to the "everyone" in the phrase "everyone knows", Enterprise was originally going to be named Constitution, because its unveiling was on Constitution Day and that would be fitting. However, apparently a bunch of Trekkies (thank goodness) wrote to President Ford asking that the name of the craft be changed to Enterprise, to honor Startrek. He did it. He totally had NASA change the name to Enterprise. The president was a nerd.
Enterprise was never capable of space-flight despite its name and what most of us think shuttles do. It was designed to test the shuttle design in terms of flight, approach and landing. Five orbiters following the Enterprise actually made it into space but only three of them are still around. The Challenger, first launched in 1983, disintegrated after takeoff on its 10th mission. The Columbia was destroyed on re-entry on its 28th mission in 2003.
The Discovery was the longest serving of all the space shuttles, first taking to the skies in 1984 and flying 39 missions before being retired in 2011. Discovery now lives at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
The Atlantis and Endeavour shuttles are also on permanent display, Atlantis at The Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex and Endeavour at The California Science Centre.
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shuttle_profiles.jpg |
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