Editing Space Shuttle Enterprise (section)

===Planned preparations for spaceflight===
At the conclusion of this testing, ''Enterprise'' was due to be taken back to Palmdale for retrofitting as a fully spaceflight capable vehicle. Under this arrangement, ''Enterprise'' would be launched on its maiden spaceflight in July 1981 to launch a communications satellite and retrieve the [[Long Duration Exposure Facility]], then planned for a 1980 release on the first operational orbiter, ''Columbia''. Afterward, ''Enterprise'' would conduct two [[Spacelab]] missions.<ref name="should">{{cite web |url=https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/what-shuttle-should-have-been-the-october-1977-flight-manifest |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326192250/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/what-shuttle-should-have-been-the-october-1977-flight-manifest |archive-date=March 26, 2012 |title=What Shuttle Should Have Been: The October 1977 Flight Manifest |work=Wired.com |first=David S F |last=Portree |date=March 24, 2012 |access-date=November 7, 2012}}</ref> However, in the period between the rollout of ''Enterprise'' and the rollout of ''Columbia'', a number of significant design changes had taken place, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. This meant that retrofitting the prototype would have been a much more expensive process than previously realized, involving the dismantling of the orbiter and the return of various structural sections to subcontractors across the country. As a consequence, NASA made the decision to convert an incomplete Structural Test Article, numbered STA-099, which had been built to undergo a variety of stress tests, into a fully flight-worthy orbiter, which became {{OV|Challenger|full=no}}.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Planned orbital missions<ref name="should" />
|-
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | #
! scope="col" style="width:18%; background:#efefef;"| Date
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | Designation
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | Launch pad
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | Notes
|-
| 1
| July 16, 1981
| STS-17
| 39-A
| Deployment of [[Intelsat]] V satellite and retrieval of [[Long Duration Exposure Facility]]
|-
| 2
| September 30, 1981
| STS-20
| 39-A
| [[Spacelab]] mission
|-
| 3
| November 25, 1981
| STS-22
| 39-A
| [[Spacelab]] mission
|}