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Space Plane on the Enterprise intro

J

JackHydrazine

Ensign
Newbie
Does anyone know what the name of the hypersonic space plane shown in the intro for about six seconds starting at about the 0:95 second mark? It shows the space plane in orbit undocking from a space station and descending toward Earth. Below is a pic of it.

I'd like to build a model of it but I can't find any info on it. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Jack Hydrazine

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/cda/html/images/feature/docs/ent_open/images/large/30.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It isn't "real".

It's just a generic spaceplane design that Doug Drexler's team came up with when asked to do some sort of a near-future spacecraft. I remember seeing the various design steps on Drexler's blog site, but I can't find those now... Too bad the site doesn't have a search function!

The only things "real" in the opening credits are the things up to the space shuttle (and even that one is a partial fake, as the name Enterprise has been computer-applied over some other name), and the submarine (it's all CGI but it depicts the very real Deep Flight project). The space station CGI is a bit different from how the ISS ended looking like; the spaceplane is fictional, and not really a good match for any of the spaceplane plans bandied about in the 1990s; and then we get the warpships which are of course all fictional.

Timo Saloniemi
 
If it helps then you could cross reference with contemporary space shuttles. It doesn't look a million miles away from the NASA space shuttle... searching "space shuttle" on Google gives a wide selection of images from plenty of different angles.
 
^Drexler's blog does have a search function, if I' not mistaken.

I swear that I read somewhere that the design for that "plane" was based off of prototype images of the next generation of orbiter, before NASA decided to go with the capsule design again.
 
The generic lifting body has been part of nearly every spacecraft design for the past few decades. What seems unique about this ENT craft is the use of those small, rounded winglets...

The ENT craft seems to have aerospike or external combustion engines, too, even though the nozzle structure isn't clearly visible from these angles. In that sense, it's similar to the VentureStar. But the overall shape is very different.

What's happening to the craft in the opening credits, BTW? Is somebody stealing it, and violently tearing it off its moorings? The spray of fluids from that umbilical doesn't look like it should be standard procedure...

Timo Saloniemi
 
Timo said:
I
The only things "real" in the opening credits are the things up to the space shuttle (and even that one is a partial fake, as the name Enterprise has been computer-applied over some other name)
Click to expand...

I thought that one was the real Shuttle Enterprise, the prototype that flew but never went to space, and that the footage was from the Enterprise's ceremony with the actual TOS cast.

In effect, a shuttle named after a ship in a show and then used by the show itself...?
 
"What's happening to the craft in the opening credits, BTW? Is somebody stealing it, and violently tearing it off its moorings? The spray of fluids from that umbilical doesn't look like it should be standard procedure..."

It looks like it might be doing an emergency undocking procedure and heading back to Earth. BTW, I did find Drexler's blog site. Haven't found a way to contact him at his blog site yet.
 
well by the late 60's there is a diverergence between trek world and out world.
for one thing trek verse seems to have have more developed space program over all.
 
Indeed. Which sort of raises the question of why the space program in the ENT credits appears so primitive.

I mean, by the 1990s, manned interplanetary space travel in the Trek universe was routine, and the early interplanetary ships of DY-100 design were actually being retired. So why would there be an ISS there? How long did the space shuttles end up serving, if they were first launched in the 1970s (after the moonflights, which still happened from 1969 on and not earlier)?

Perhaps the space shuttle and the ISS (which obviously is a structure built by using the space shuttle) were the products of the late 1970s and early 1980s in the Trek universe, and were long gone by the 1990s already?

In DS9, we see that the ISS may have had competition: there's a desktop model of the preceding space station design Freedom (or one of its many variants), complete with the attached and apparently perfectly spaceworthy space shuttle Enterprise. I wouldn't wonder a bit if the Trek universe featured a dozen shuttles and half a dozen modular crewed space structures in the 1980s, then, including both the DS9 desktop station and the ENT opening credits one.

Or then one or both of those stations were never built in the Trek universe. After all, one is just a scale model, and the other is just a CGI promotional video; neither pretends to be a visual effect of a "real "space structure.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Welcome to the forum, JackHydrazine. :)

Just a reminder that posted images shouldn't be hotlinked. I suggest you have a look at the FAQ to familiarize yourself with the rules we have regarding image posting and such. There is also helpful info here about posting images. Thanks.
 
Since people mentioned some similarity of the generic ENT space plane and the VentureStar space plane I got to thinking about that and something clicked. The VentureStar/X-33 was supposed to be a SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) space plane that was to take off vertically and land horizontally using the linear aerospike rocket engine before it was canceled in 2001.
More info here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VentureStar

Maybe this ENT space plane featured for those six seconds right before the NX-01 is a SSTO-type of space plane that made travel to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) common place and cheap. It does look as if this space plane does use a linear aerospike engine or a variant of it.
Here's a pic of the back end of the VentureStar and compare that to the back of the ENT space plane.
http://www.ontomax.com/images//space/x-33/tps_venturestar.jpg

What's really funny about the ENT space plane is that every time I look at the nose of the spacecraft it reminds of the nose end of a Boeing 747.

-Jack
 
Cyke101 said:
I thought that one was the real Shuttle Enterprise, the prototype that flew but never went to space, and that the footage was from the Enterprise's ceremony with the actual TOS cast.

In effect, a shuttle named after a ship in a show and then used by the show itself...?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Space Shuttle Enterprise was originally supposed to be called the Constitution, but the public flooded NASA with the request to rename it the Enterprise.

-Jack
 
pookha said:
well by the late 60's there is a diverergence between trek world and out world.
for one thing trek verse seems to have have more developed space program over all.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking that the ENT space plane, which might be SSTO, was up and running between the 2020s to the mid-21st century before the 2063 flight of Zephram Cochrane's Phoenix shown right after the ENT space plane cgi animation sequence.

-Jack
 
Sounds possible - except that I'd think aerospike engines would be utterly antiquated by that time. After all, Khan in the 1990s had access to a ship where onboard gravity could be manipulated. Surely this gravity technology would also have propulsion applications, especially for craft that are intended to move stuff up and down a gravity well?

Or did Khan secretly retrofit his DY-100 with artificial gravity which he himself and his fellow superbrains had developed, whereas the rest of the world used DY-100 vessels that had no AG?

Timo Saloniemi
 
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