Why Did NASA's Space Shuttle Ride On A Plane?

I explain why NASA's Space Shuttle occasionally did plane rides!

#SpaceX #starship #elonmusk #starbase

Editing: John Young, Alex Potvin, Stefanie Schlang
Photography: John Cargile, John Winkopp & Stefanie Schlang
3D Animation: Voop3D
Script & Research: Nathan, Soren, Oskar Wrobel, Felix Schlang
LIVE Production: Astro Roadie, Jonahan Heuer
Host: Felix Schlang
Production: Stefanie & Felix Schlang
Graphics & Media Processing: Jonathan Heuer, Felix Schlang

Credit:

⭐SpaceX
⭐NASA
⭐VirtualSpace_3D on X: @Lolomatico3d
⭐The Ring Watchers on X: @RingWatchers
📄Links for this Episode:

[daleeasterwood]

The Shuttle was a brick with wings. I live west of KSC and saw it on the carrier plane flying overhead several times. Very cool.

[jimb]

My Dad had ALS. And we was at home in ohio and we went to our patio with him in his wheel chair and saw a beautiful site of it flying tilted at us it was one of his biggest things while being so sick... thank you

[markguzman]

Flew right over our house in San Antonio when I was a kid. I’ll never forget. Saw it with my dad. Miss you!

[thomasbell]

Used to pass over Houston with a T-38 riding chase on either wing. It was a helluva thing to see.

[MYWORKINFO]

That picture of the shuttle and modified 747 flying over San Francisco bridge is epic, if that really happened could you imagine if you just happened to be driving on that bridge and saw this in the sky. It would be amazing to see.

[MrMrFlyPuppy]

Hey all, I actually met the designer, John Kiker, in Houston years back. I saw several of his home movies he made of his first attempts and there were dozens of crashes but he persavered and its now history. His idea was met with a ton of skepticism but his RC models proved it was practical and the aerodynamics and such could be figured out. The Ukrainians designed and improved on the US design, the Antonov AN-225, the largest transport plane ever! Awesome guy John Kiker, he was a pilot and RC model builder.

[AidenShawen]

I saw the 747 irl and it's MASSIVE.

[goldgamercommenting]

I regularly call this the God of the Sky

The 747-SCA 905 is the original SCA (shuttle carrier aircraft) originally given to nasa from American Airlines. She was of course the aircraft that tested space shuttle enterprise. She even been to Britain and France with enterprise on top. She even been to New York with enterprise for the shuttle carrier’s last mission. She’s now on display in Huston Texas at the Johnson space center today as the best preserved example of the God of the sky.

[texan-american]

When I was stationed at Kelly AFB back in the '80s, I remembered looking up and I saw the shuttle and 747 flying over my head as it was circling around to make a landing down at Kelly Field proper.
Saying over my head was the most incredible sight I've seen and seeing it land also stopped traffic on the far end of the landing strip as they all watch the plane land.

[martinperry]

The plane was bonkers. There was a slide through the body of it and a hatch on the belly so the pilots could eject out the bottom and parachute to safety in the event of an emergency.

[chucknutly]

Well when a space shuttle and a plane love eachother very much...

[Metastasic]

It had fuel and engines separate from the main shuttle engines and main tank. They were the OMS/RCS pods for the reaction control thrusters and the Orbital Maneuvering System. There were a total of 2 AJ10 engines producing 6, 000 lbs of thrust each and had approx 20, 000 lbs of propellant on board for a total delta-V of 1000 feet/sec. The engines were used to deorbit the orbiter; and sometimes to assist in the initial push into space by adding to the main engine burn. The reaction control (rear) main thrusters could do close to 900 lbs of thrust as well. They shared propellant for the OMS system. While they were typically used in vacuum, if they were ignited on land it appears the orbiter could take off using the delta-V from the OMS system. I’m not sure it was able to be used in atmosphere and it may have caused severe damage but by the maths, this engine/propellant system was indeed capable of launching and propelling the Orbiter; it wasn’t simply a glider.

[michaelbarkleyphoto]

They both flew over my house when I was a teenager. It was so close I thought I could reach up and touch it.

[Wvplaneandtrainspot]

The plane the shuttle was transported on was a custome boeing 747 for nasa! Hope this helps!

[SomeWhat_Gamer-]

To some STS pilots they refer to the shuttle as “A flying brick”

[moleqle]

Saw one of the shuttles riding piggy back, up here in Ottawa Canada. There were also two stealth fighters maneuvering in the sky. Looked like an alien dogfight.
Never seen an aircraft move that way. It was surreal and awesome.

[paulroberts]

Russia's shuttle (buran) was transported on the worlds largest plane Antonov An-225.

[wolvenar]

It wasn't even a good glider. It was meant to survive re-entry and get on the ground in one piece. Comfort and control was the last thing that was on the designers minds.

[YTDopeFPS]

Wait so the big orange tank was the fuel container ?

[dwmcever]

Watched 747/Shuttle combo land and take off from Ellington Field in Houston way back in the 80's. Was the coolest Technical thing I ever saw in person. The awesomeness of the Space Shuttle was way beyond Elon's Starship. This had never been done before by mankind.