On August 12, 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise (aka Orbiter Vehicle OV-101) made its first free flight, launched from a Boeing 747 carrier. The Enterprise glided on its own, and landed on a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert. This was a prototype built only for testing, and never equipped for space flight. The Enterprise was named for the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from the TV series Star Trek.

The design of the space shuttle was based upon U.S. Patent No. 3,866,863 on a Space Vehicle

and U.S. Patent No.3,702,688 on a Space Shuttle Vehicle and System:

Our reality rarely matches our imagination, but the space shuttle Enterprise and carried forward the spirit of its namesake, the U.S.S. Enterprise, and its mission to boldly go where no one had gone before.