Title: Space Shuttle Approach and landing Test (ALT) Program
Designer: Unknown
Year it was designed: circa 1977
Explanation or story behind the patch: The space shuttle orbiter was the first spacecraft designed with the aerodynamic characteristics and in-atmosphere handling qualities of a conventional airplane. To evaluate the orbiter’s flight control systems and subsonic handling characteristics, a series of flight tests were undertaken at Dryden in 1977. A modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) carried the Enterprise, a prototype orbiter, during eight captive tests to determine how well the two vehicles flew together and to test some of the orbiter’s systems. The free-flight phase of the ALT program allowed shuttle pilots to explore the orbiter’s low-speed flight and landing characteristics. NASA selected two two-man orbiter crews for the ALT. The first consisted of Fred W. Haise Jr. and C. Gordon Fullerton. The second consisted of Joe H. Engle and Richard H. Truly. Crewmembers for the 747 SCA included pilots Fitzhugh L. Fulton Jr. and Thomas C. McMurtry and flight engineers Victor W. Horton, Thomas E. Guidry Jr., William R. Young, and Vincent A. Alvarez. Both the orbiter and SCA crews had their own patches.
For more information on the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Test Program, click https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-015-DFRC.html