NASA's Old Reliable - N905NA
by Alex Esguerra
Title
NASA's Old Reliable - N905NA
Artist
Alex Esguerra
Medium
Photograph
Description
If the orbiter sitting on the pad atop her ET/SRB stack is the quintessential image that comes to people's minds when they think of the Space Shuttle, then it sitting atop the SCA has got to be a close second. It's not every day that a person sees the combo of one massive winged vehicle plopped down on top of an even larger winged vehicle take flight. On the scale of the Shuttle/SCA, we may not see it again.
The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) played a crucial role in the Shuttle Program. Besides her primary task of carrying the spacecraft back home should she land off KSC-proper, she was there during the very first tests of orbiter. It was the oldest SCA, N905NA, that took Enterprise around the country for pad fit testing as well as for the memorable approach & landing flights. 905 alone carried the five NASA shuttles 227 times without issue, and with her sister SCA N911NA built a solid reputation for unfailing reliability to the program.
In this picture, N905NA soars by NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility as she takes Endeavour on her cross crountry trek to the California Science Center for permanent display. Despite some dark clouds in the area, no one worries about the trip with this SCA on the job. Like the 227 other times she has carried an orbiter before, she will no doubt see her precious cargo to its destination..
Uploaded
September 20th, 2012
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