A closer look
When you have a reusable spacecraft that lands perfectly in California but needs to launch from Florida, you have a massive logistics headache. Since the shuttle had the aerodynamic gliding capability of a wet brick and no jet engines, NASA just bolted the 170,000-pound orbiter onto the roof of a gutted Boeing 747. It was an absurdly comical sight—a colossal spaceship piggybacking on a commercial jumbo jet, casually flying over the American midwest.






