Why Nasa Picked A Boeing 747 To Piggyback The Space Shuttle

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The Boeing 747 has taken galore forms successful its decades of service. First introduced successful 1970, nan Queen of nan Skies has flown for airlines each complete nan world. It has besides had a fistful of broadside gigs complete nan past 55 years, serving arsenic the iconic Air Force One, a bid and power post, and moreover an airborne firefighter.  Some proposals sewage arsenic crazy arsenic Boeing's thought to toggle shape nan 747 into a flying craft carrier. While that ne'er made it past nan study phase, NASA would yet return advantage of nan jet's low-wing floor plan and cleanable tail configuration to springiness nan level nan occupation of carrying an craft dissimilar immoderate different — nan abstraction shuttle. 

For 3 decades, nan iconic abstraction shuttles were nan flagships of American spaceflight. In their 135 missions, nan 5 shuttles group awesome milestones, including putting nan first American female into space and launching spacecraft heavy into nan reaches of our star system. They deployed and repaired nan Hubble Space Telescope, which gave america views of our beingness that had ne'er been seen before. Most notably, they helped merge nations arsenic nan workhorses down the building of nan International Space Station.

However, nary of these missions and moments would beryllium imaginable if it weren't for a brace of hot-rodded Boeing 747s. While 5 orbiters could transportation 8 tons of cargo into debased Earth orbit earlier gliding backmost home, only 2 jumbo jets could get them backmost successful position for their adjacent mission. Meet nan 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, aliases SCA.

Each of nan shuttle's 135 missions started astatine Kennedy Space Center successful Cape Canaveral. That's an easy travel to make if nan shuttle lands backmost successful Florida, but 54 times, upwind diversions forced a landing astatine nan backup tract of Edwards Air Force Base successful California. If things really went disconnected kilter, emergency abort landing sites were prepared on nan East Coast and crossed nan Atlantic. NASA quickly realized it needed a measurement to get its shuttles backmost to Florida, and its cavernous Apollo-hauling Super Guppy was acold from large capable to transportation them.

For nan SCA, NASA landed connected nan 2 biggest planes connected nan market: Lockheed's C-5 Galaxy subject carrier aliases nan Boeing 747. Boeing's low-wing creation and tail configuration were preferred, truthful it was deemed astir suitable to person an orbiter riding piggyback. In addition, any C-5 would beryllium loaned to nan agency from nan Air Force, while NASA could person afloat ownership of a 747. That made nan Queen of nan Skies nan easy choice.

To equine nan orbiter to nan backmost of nan plane, 3 struts would beryllium installed connected apical of nan fuselage, utilizing nan aforesaid attachment points nan orbiter utilized to unafraid nan orangish outer substance vessel astatine launch. However, having a shuttle connected nan backmost of nan pitchy obstructed airflow to nan vertical stabilizer, truthful 2 further stabilizers were installed connected nan tail conception to summation stability. 

Inside nan jet, a plethora of modifications were made to let nan 747 to transportation an other 170,000 pounds of abstraction shuttle. Alongside structural reinforcement of nan fuselage, insulation, seats, and soul panels were stripped from nan wrong of nan pitchy to prevention weight. Only nan first people seats remained connected committee to haul NASA unit during missions.

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NASA and Boeing began transforming a erstwhile 747-100 into nan first of nan carriers successful 1974. Formerly flying for American Airlines, nan first SCA, dubbed NASA 905 would play a pivotal domiciled successful nan improvement and testing of nan shuttle, arsenic it would get nan shuttle airborne during nan Approach and Landing Tests. A bid of missions successful 1977 saw nan shuttle and 747 abstracted mid-air, letting nan orbiter glide backmost down to world for its first ever flights. 

After testing, nan SCA began hauling shuttles that landed successful California backmost to Cape Canaveral. Although acold quicker than immoderate obstruction aliases overland transportation, nan transportation was acold from simple. Upon landing, complete 170 engineers had to thief load and unload nan shuttle from nan backmost of nan SCA. That orbiter besides made nan 747 incredibly cumbersome. While astir 747s could easy alert from New York to London, nan orbiter trim nan scope of nan SCA to astir 1,000 miles, with velocity and ceiling constricted to conscionable Mach .6 and 15,000 feet. The constricted scope meant returning a shuttle to Florida took arsenic agelong arsenic 3 days.

Thankfully, thief was connected nan way. In 1989, a 747-100SR acquired from Japan Airlines would statesman nan modification process to participate work arsenic NASA 911. Together, nan 2 planes would alert nan shuttles from Pacific to Atlantic a mixed 87 times during nan Shuttle Program, allowing them to get spaceborne erstwhile much successful a matter of months. 

After their last missions successful 2011, nan SCAs would return nan remaining 3 shuttles to their status homes successful museums crossed nan nation, marking an extremity to 1 of NASA's astir beloved programs and nan 2 Boeings that kept them alive.