When the Space Shuttle Flew Over London
"Euston, do you copy?"
Welcome to Londonist: Time Machine’s Friday edition for paying subscribers, with a generous teaser for everyone else.
“Space Shuttle Due”. It’s not, I expect, a headline the editor of the Saffron Walden Weekly News ever imagined publishing. But on 5 June 1983, the local Essex press really could report on an incoming spaceship. The US shuttle Enterprise was set to touch down at Stansted airport, having flown low over central London.
That’s for the main section. First, the History Radar.
History Radar
Upcoming events for fans of London history. And it’s a bumper edition this week.
🔫 LONDON AT WAR: From 24 February, the London Archives has a free exhibition, London in the Second World War, about the experiences of Londoners during the conflict. View bomb-damage maps, personal diaries, rarely seen artworks and photographs. It’s on until October. The same venue also has a free exhibition of vintage tram posters running at the moment, too.
🪶 MEDIEVAL WORLD: On 25 February, Join professional calligrapher Patricia Lovett for an exploration of Medieval manuscripts at the British Library. Learn about the skilled artists and scribes who created the works, and view some original artworks. Ties in with the venue's current Medieval Women exhibition.
🕯️ CANDLELIT LATE: On 26 February, Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham has a Candlelit Late, giving you the chance to explore the Gothic castle after dark, at your own pace. Wander through corridors and chambers admiring both the building itself and the artefacts on display. Your ticket includes a glass of fizz.
🐕🦺 CANINE SLAVES: On 27 February, join Professor Helen Cowie from the University of York to explore animal rights in the 19th century. Hear about human-animal interactions during the Victorian era, including the emergence of the animal protection movement and changing social attitudes towards various animals. Takes place at Keats House in Hampstead.
🏳️🌈 QUEER AS FOLKLORE: Author and queer historian Sacha Coward is at Chelsea Physic Garden on 28 February to discuss his book, Queer As Folklore, which delves into the overlooked queer history of heroes and villains of storytelling, magic, and fantasy.
🚪 SOANE LATE: Also on the 28 February, Sir John Soane's Museum stays open late for an evening inspired by the current exhibition Soane and Modernism: Make It New. Hear expert talks about the exhibition, and view drawings which didn't make it into the final display, as well as exploring the museum after dark.
⛪️ LUXMURALIS: You've got until 28 February to see Luminous by Luxmuralis, a light and sound show taking place inside St Paul's Cathedral. See the interior of the dome, and other parts of the building, illuminated in a show inspired by the building's own history and archives.
🌳 LOST GARDENS: Also closing soon… the Garden Museum's current exhibition, Lost Gardens of London, delves into the little-known history of some of London's most intriguing forgotten gardens. Pleasure grounds, private botanical collections, humble allotments and leafy squares all feature in the display, which uses artworks and other documents to showcase the lost green spaces. Ends 2 March
👣 LITERARY FOOTPRINTS: The guides at Footprints of London have once again put together a series of guided walks themed around literature, creating the Literary Footprints festival. Throughout March, join walks (and some virtual tours) on topics including Wolf Hall, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Monica Ali's Brick Lane and much more.
♀ WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: Look out for loads of events taking place throughout March as part of Women’s History Month. Highlights include an historical promenade performance through the corridors of Hampton Court Palace, an exhibition about the training of Wrens during WWII at the Old Royal Naval College and a whole heap of talks and lectures. I’ll pick out some individual events in future History Radars, but for now, take a look at the complete listings.
When the Space Shuttle Flew Over London
It’s easy to see a spacecraft from London. The International Space Station passes overhead regularly, and briefly becomes the second brightest object in the night sky. But that’s 250 miles up. How often does a spaceship fly just a few hundred metres above our heads?
That’s what happened on 5 June 1983. On that day, NASA’s space shuttle Enterprise performed a Thames flyover on top of its Boeing 747 carrier craft, before landing at Stansted Airport. Half a million people saw the vehicle on the tarmac. But the London flypast is poorly recorded, and remains a little-known event among those of us not lucky enough to have been there.
A unique vehicle
Shuttle Enterprise holds a special place in the history of US space programs. It was the first space shuttle to be built, and rolled out. The ship served as an atmospheric test article, to train astronauts and demonstrate the vehicle’s unique approach patterns and glide capabilities. It never had engines. It never flew in space. But it was otherwise built to the same template as the space-worthy orbiters that would follow.
The story behind its name is interesting. NASA had originally intended to call the ship Constitution, but a dogged letter-writing campaign from Star Trek fans prompted a rethink. President Gerald Ford acquiesced, saying: “It is a distinguished name in American naval history, with a long tradition of courage and endurance. It is also a name familiar to millions of faithful followers of the science fiction television program Star Trek. To explore the frontiers of space, there is no better ship than the space shuttle, and no better name for that ship than the Enterprise.”
None of the space shuttles could take off from a runway. Not under their own power, anyway. They had to ride piggy-back atop a Boeing 747 to move between facilities — a volant absurdity that nevertheless got the job done. And this is precisely how Enterprise made the trip to London.
Paris, Rome … Swindon?
By June 1983, Enterprise’s stablemates had already flown 11 successful missions to orbit. The programme was gearing up to launch bigger crews, bigger payloads, unleash the Hubble Space Telescope and eventually build a space station. The Challenger disaster was still three years in the future. It was an optimistic time for space flight, and everybody wanted to see the shuttle.
The operational orbiters were busy running missions, but NASA had a PR ace up its sleeve with Enterprise. The craft was no longer needed for aerodynamic testing, and was free to travel around the globe in an ambassadorial role.
1983 saw the ship cross the Atlantic for the first and only time. Its European tour was not just for novelty value. The shuttle program had a commercial dimension: launching satellites for third parties, including any European customers who might be able to stump up the ~£25 million price tag. Enterprise’s tour would consequently take in the European capitals of Rome, Bonn and Paris. It would then fly low over the Dutch coast before heading to London and Stansted.
Before the glitz of these European capitals, Enterprise and its carrier aircraft made a brief fuel stop in rural Gloucestershire. Yes, Gloucestershire. How many people know that the first non-American soil ever visited by a space shuttle was half-way between the villages of Kempsford and Meysey Hampton, a little north of Swindon?
The choice was not as random as I’m making it sound. The local air base, RAF Fairford, had a 3km runway able to support the most demanding aircraft. Indeed, Fairford was already designated as an emergency strip for any space-bound shuttles that had to make a transoceanic abort landing, an eventuality that never happened. The other good thing about Gloucestershire, of course, is that it is completely unpronounceable to Americans.
Shuttle over the Thames
A couple of weeks later, after turning heads at the Paris Air Show, the shuttle was back in UK airspace. Its flightpath, altered last-minute because of wind conditions, would carry it eastwards along the Thames from Windsor to Greenwich, before heading north into Essex.
Londoners crowded onto the bridges to watch this unique flypast. The shuttle and carrier plane flew in aerial solidarity just 2,000 feet (610 metres) up — less than the height of two Shards. It must have been an unforgettable sight. One of the London sky-gazers that day was the Duke of Edinburgh, who was out rehearsing the Trooping the Colour. By all accounts, the His Royal Highness leaned so far backwards that he almost toppled off his horse. Just imagine the headlines, if the Duke had been maimed by a passing spaceship.
A less-august eye-witness remembers watching the Thames flypast aged 10 or 11:
“I was with all my mates on BMXs on a walkway, south side of the Thames in Battersea near St Mary's church, when all these photographers turned up. We asked what was going on and they told us the space shuttle was going to fly over. Sure enough 20 minutes later it did and right over our heads. Amazing sight to see, but no-one ever believes me because I don't have photographic proof."
Sadly, this seems to be the general case. There are very few photographs online of the shuttle recognisably flying over London, but a few can be found in the newspaper archives. Here’s a poor one with the dome of St Paul’s in the foreground, and another grainy image with the Barbican towers. And here’s another that shows the stack over Windsor. If you happen to know somebody with better photos of the flypast, I would love to see them.
