NASA Space Shuttle-Carrying Jumbo Jet Set To Retire

By: Robert Z. Pearlman
Published: 02/13/2012 06:27 PM EST on SPACE.com

One of only two planes ever to carry NASA's space shuttles on piggy-back rides across the country has taken its last flight after more than 20 years of service.

NASA 911, one of the two Boeing 747 jetliners that were modified for use as a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) made its last flight Wednesday(Feb. 8). The four-engine jumbo jet, which was used to ferry shuttles between their West Coast landing site and East Coast launch site, flew its final mission making the short hop from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to Dryden's Aircraft Operations Facility located adjacent to Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. The flight lasted about 20 minutes.

With the end of the shuttle program last summer, only one of the carrier aircraft — the original, NASA 905 — is still needed to fly the orbiters to their respective museums for public display.

In its retirement, NASA 911 will be used as a source of spare parts to keep NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) flying. Also based around a Boeing 747, SOFIA uses the jetliner as a platform for a 100-inch (2.5-meter) reflecting telescope. [NASA's Space Shuttle Program in Photos]

Second in, first out

NASA 911, a Boeing 747-100SR short range version, was the second of NASA's two shuttle carrier aircraft. Built in November 1973, it originally flew as a commercial airliner operated by Japan Air Lines for about 15 years.

Acquired by NASA in 1989, NASA 911 — or as registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, N911NA — was then modified for shuttle service by the Boeing Company.

Among the changes made to it were the addition of three struts protruding from the top of its fuselage on which the orbiters were mounted and the installation of two vertical stabilizers to steady it in flight.

All of the jet's interior furnishings and equipment that was located to the rear of its forward doors were removed and additional instrumentation was added to allow the flight crew to monitor the electrical loads while the aircraft was ferrying a shuttle.

NASA 911 was delivered to the space agency on Nov. 20, 1990. Over the course of two decades, it carried shuttles between California and Florida, either returning them to their launch site after landing on the west coast or ferrying them to Palmdale for modifications and upgrades.

As just one example, NASA 911 returned space shuttle Atlantis from Edwards Air Force Base to Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the orbiter flew the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

Including its 20-minute final flight, NASA 911 amassed a total of 33,004.1 hours in flight over its more than 38-year flying career.

Museum-bound

As NASA 911 begins its new role as a parts provider for SOFIA, its predecessor still has a few shuttle ferry flights to complete.

NASA 905, or N905NA, will take to the air on April 17 to deliver shuttle Discoveryto the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, DC. The jet will then be reunited with the very first orbiter it flew, the prototype Enterprise, for a ferry flight to New York City.

Enterprise, which has been on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center since 2003, will go on exhibit at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museumin Manhattan later this summer.

Finally in October, shuttle Endeavour will ride piggy-back atop NASA 905 to Los Angeles, where the orbiter will go on display at the California Science Center.

To prepare for those final ferries, Dryden Flight Research Center has been shipping out ground and airborne support equipment that supported shuttle landing and servicing operations over the past 35 years — including parts from NASA 911.

The overland strongback transporter that carried shuttles Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis from their final assembly location in Palmdale to Dryden in the late 1970s through early 1980s was disassembled and shipped to Los Angeles late last month.

It will be used to transport Endeavour from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Centerand then will be part of the orbiter's temporary display until its permanent exhibit is completed.

NASA technicians also removed the pedestals from the aft shuttle mounting struts atop NASA 911. The pedestals will be used to secure Enterprise to a barge that will float the orbiter from JFK International Airport to the Intrepid by way of New York's Hudson River.

Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter @collectSPACE and editor Robert Pearlman @robertpearlman. Copyright 2011 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

• Historic Photos: NASA's 1st & Last Space Shuttle Crews Meet
• Thirty Years of NASA Space Shuttle Missions
• Vote Now! What's Your Favorite Space Shuttle?

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Comments

[TheLibraryOfCodex]

05:52 AM on 02/16/2012

Jumbo got sick of being humped by the shuttle.

[robertr2m]

03:23 AM on 02/15/2012

I saw the first shuttle when it landed at Ellington AFB back in the beginning. Looks a lot bigger up close. A piece of history...

[SwiftJonathan]

03:20 AM on 02/16/2012

The problem is that the Shuttle was too large for the safety of the astronauts but way too small as a space truck. It's a design that fails every single requirement that is was supposed to satisfy... there were simply too many of them and they were all contradictory. That's called "poor system design".

[ThinkCreeps]

04:20 AM on 02/16/2012

It was sized to match the biggest satellites it was required to launch. 40 years ago it was a reasonable thing to try to do. Persisting with it after 1986 was the mistake, a mistake which the air force did not make.

If it had a launch escape system, beyond a pair of ejector seats, it would have been better, and Challenger may not have killed anyone.

Unfortunately, concerning Columbia, there's not really any way to improve re-entry safety, while keeping a dense object - it all relies on the heat shields being intact. Furthermore, there's no way to attach engines to the shuttle for reuse, while having it ride on top of the fuel tank to avoid ice and debris. Most of these issues would have been mitigated with better design of the plumbing and attachments, though.

[TheLibraryOfCodex]

05:52 AM on 02/16/2012

Too big.

[blackwind]

05:28 PM on 02/14/2012

Judging from the picture at the top of the article, I'd say we have some baby shuttle/airplane hybrids on the way.
They might turn out to be just the thing for the new generation of reusable spacecraft.

[wrwhiteal]

03:43 PM on 02/14/2012

NASA promised the shuttle would cost $7 million/flight... fly 50+ times a year..
NASA delivered a shuttle which cost $1.5 billion per flight.. it's bankrupting cost prevented/cancelled the very worthwhile missions the shuttle was promised to enable..

NASA astronauts risked their lives to fly freight up and garbage back from ISS.. when unmanned vehicles could have done it for 1/20th the cost..

NASA's record of 40 years and $500 billion spent without a single American getting 400 miles from earth is just more proof of Govt pork waste, inefficiency....

[ThinkCreeps]

04:46 PM on 02/14/2012

Don't judge NASA by human spaceflight. Since 1972 NASA has been responsible for missions that have revealed and mapped the microwave, infrared, UV, X-ray and gamma-ray universe, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and visited most of the planets, including exploring Mars.

The Shuttle was also essential to Hubble's operation, although a repeat flight model would indeed have been safer and cheaper.

[wrwhiteal]

06:36 PM on 02/14/2012

The Shuttle was also essential to Hubble's operation,
=======
The replacement value of Hubble (cost to build another) was perhaps $400 million..
Each Space Shuttle flight cost $1.5 billion... before maintenance/upgrade additional costs.
What genius spends $1.5+ billion to repair a $400 million telescope.. 5 times!!!

So, with launch and 'repair missions', NASA spent 6 shuttle flights, $9+ billion to launch/repair a telescope with a $400 million repair cost..

All government is pork, waste, self-interest, stupidity... and NASA is no exception.

[wrwhiteal]

06:38 PM on 02/14/2012

Don't judge NASA by human spacefligh­t.
===== =
You are aware that each year, more than half the NASA budget goes to manned space flight?
Of course, our parasitic, wasteful, corrupt govt is a monopoly which doesn't want to be judged by any cost-benefit result, do they.

[blackwind]

05:31 PM on 02/14/2012

NASA has been doing a lot of things other than trying to get humans more than 400 miles from earth, so that alone is hardly a useful gauge of it's success.

[wrwhiteal]

06:42 PM on 02/14/2012

NASA's charter is for space exploration, technology, science..
the bulk of the NASA budget since Apollo is for manned space..

In 4 decades, we have ZERO manned space exploration (haven't left low earth orbit), zero technology (begging for rides from russians, farther from an American on mars than 1969), and pretty much zero science (unmanned satellites/probes are far better than manned, and 1/100th the cost)..

When young, I watched Americans walk on the Moon, and dreamed of what more I would see in my lifetime.. Lunar colonies, Americans on Mars, trips to the Asteriods..

Thanks to Fed Govt NASA waste, sloth, incompetence, pork, none of that happened..

I don't have another 40 years to waste on big govt pork driven NASA... I am ready on a private sector based model for the US space program.

[ambrecel]

12:16 PM on 02/14/2012

That is a piece of American history to go visit.