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NASA Meatball NASA Dryden STS-92 Landing banner
STS-92 - Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) STS-92 - Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA)

Photo Number: EC00-0311-8
Photo Date: October 29, 2000

Formats: 524x480 JPEG Image (71 KBytes)
1117x1023 JPEG Image (339 KBytes)
3000x2750 JPEG Image (3,694 KBytes)

Photo
Description:
One of NASA’s two modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is bathed in the morning Sun at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. The modified jumbo jetliners are used to ferry the Space Shuttle orbiters between Dryden and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Boeing’s Reusable Space Systems modification facility at Palmdale, California. Features which distinguish the two SCAs from standard 747 jetliners are three struts, with associated interior structural strengthening, which protrude from the top of the fuselage (two aft, one forward) on which the orbiter is attached, and two additional vertical stabilizers, one on each end of the standard horizontal stabilizer, to enhance directional stability. All interior furnishings and equipment aft of the forward No. 1 doors have also been removed to reduce weight. The two SCAs are under the operational control of NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas.

Project
Description:
STS-92 was the 100th mission since the fleet of four Space Shuttles began flying in 1981. (Due to schedule changes, missions are not always launched in the order that was originally planned.) The almost 13-day mission, the 46th Shuttle mission to land at Edwards, was the last construction mission for the International Space Station prior to the first scientists taking up residency in the orbiting space laboratory the following month. The seven-member crew on STS-92 included mission specialists Koichi Wakata, Michael Lopez-Alegria, Jeff Wisoff, Bill McArthur and Leroy Chiao, pilot Pam Melroy and mission commander Brian Duffy.

NASA Photo by: Jim Ross

Keywords: Space Shuttle; STS-92; Shuttle Carrier Aircraft; SCA; Koichi Wakata; Michael Lopez-Alegria; Jeff Wisoff; Bill McArthur; Leroy Chiao; pilot Pam Melroy; mission commander Brian Duffy; Space Transportation System; 100th STS mission; Discovery; Edwards Air Force Base; International Space Station; NASA Dryden Flight Research Center; Johnson Space Center


Last Modified: February 6, 2002
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