Description : Marshall Space Center post stamp and shuttle Enterprise vibration tests.
Following the conclusion of the ALT test flight program, on March 13, 1978, Enterprise was flown once again, but this time half way across the country to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Alabama for the Mated Vertical Ground Vibration Testing (MGVT).
The orbiter was lifted up on a sling very similar to the one used at Kennedy Space Center and placed inside the Dynamic Test Stand building, and there mated to the Vertical Mate Ground Vibration Test tank (VMGVT-ET), which in turn was attached to a set of inert Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) to form a complete shuttle launch stack, and marked the first time in the program’s history that all Space Shuttle elements, an Orbiter, an External Tank (ET), and two SRBs, were mated together.
During the course of the program, Enterprise and the rest of the launch stack would be exposed to a punishing series of vibration tests simulating as closely as possible those expected during various phases of launch, some tests with and others without the SRBs in place.

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STS ENTERPRISE (OV-101) · 1ST SPACE SHUTTLE · CONSTRUCTION & TESTS