In the end, only the prototype Enterprise was stood up with an external tank and solid rocket boosters on SLC-6 before the Challenger tragedy in 1986 caused the DOD to rethink its reliance on the shuttle. Again, the Air Force walked away from the built-up facility, having never launched a single mission.
NASA’s prototype space shuttle orbiter Enterprise, stacked with an external tank and two solid rocket boosters, stands at Space Launch Complex-6 (SLC-6), flanked by the assembly building and mobile service tower at Vandenberg Air Force Base (today Vandenberg Space Force Base) in California in February 1985.
U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. James Pearson
NASA’s prototype space shuttle orbiter Enterprise, stacked with an external tank and two solid rocket boosters, stands at Space Launch Complex-6 (SLC-6), flanked by the assembly building and mobile service tower at Vandenberg Air Force Base (today Vandenberg Space Force Base) in California in February 1985.
U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. James Pearson
