Reporters did not know much more about the new shuttle than the regular public. CBS reporter Terry Drinkwater chose a straightforward, facts only approach: “The public today got a look at NASA’s new space shuttle, a hybrid craft that’s a cross between a rocket ship and an airplane,” he began, and only later coming to the main advantage of the new shuttle: “The craft is reusable. With these wings, it can glide back to Earth and be launched again.” The report still understated the amount of time and treasure put into the projects, or the hopes it carried on its wings.

On this day, September 17, 1976, NASA publicly unveiled its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California. Building the craft took nearly a decade and $10 billion, but expectations were high that the craft would be a major step up from the past generation crammed (and disposable) capsules.

NASA’s only mistake was in waiting two and a half years between unveiling and launch. In between that time fans (and fanatics) of the science-fiction show Star Trek began a massive letter-writing campaign to president Gerald R. Ford to name the shuttle Enterprise. Ford never forced the change, but did acknowledge he liked the name. With that, the formerly-named Constitution was quickly re-christened.