NASA flew two modified Boeing 747s, originally manufactured for commercial use, as Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
The two aircraft were identical in performance as Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).
NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) 905
This was the Boeing 747-123 built in 1970. It was the only SCA used by the Space Shuttle program until November 1990, when NASA 911 was delivered.
Along with ferrying Enterprise and the flight-rated shuttle orbiters between the launch and landing sites and other locations, NASA 905 also ferried Enterprise to Europe for display in England and at the Paris Air Show and the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans.
NASA 905 flew 70 of the 87 ferry missions during the operational phase of the shuttle program, including 46 of the 54 post-mission ferry flights from Dryden to the Kennedy Space Center.
Following the retirement of orbiters, NASA 905 flew three ferry missions to deliver the shuttles Discovery, Enterprise, and Endeavour to museums.
Upon its retirement in late 2012, it had flown 11,018 flight hours over 42 years, both as a commercial jetliner and as a NASA space shuttle carrier, and had made 6,335 takeoffs and landings.
Now it is on display at Space Center Houston, the Johnson Space Center’s visitor center.
NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) 911
NASA 911 was the second SCA, a Boeing 747-100SR-46, originally built in 1973 for Japan Air Lines. The aircraft was obtained by NASA from the airline in 1989, modified by The Boeing, and delivered to NASA on November 20, 1990.
Upon its retirement on Feb. 8, 2012, it had 33,004 flight hours over its 38-year flight career, including 386 flights as a NASA shuttle carrier aircraft, 66 of which were flights with a Space Shuttle.
It flew 17 of the post-shuttle-landing ferry flights from Edwards to Kennedy. NASA 911 is currently on public display at the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark in Palmdale, California, under a long-term loan agreement with NASA.
Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Gallery
NASA’s two modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905 (front) and 911 (rear) flying in formation.
Photographed over the Southern California high desert in the Edwards Air Force Base Test Range. Photographer Carla Thomas
The Space Shuttle Atlantis centered in the Mate-Demate Device (MDD) at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, CA.
Aircraft 905 lifts off Northrup Strip at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, with Space Shuttle Columbia mounted atop. April 6, 1982. This was a ferry flight to get Columbia back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In the previous week bad weather left Edwards’ lakebed runways too soggy to support a shuttle landing. Therefore Colombia had been diverted to Northrup Strip. It was the only Space shuttle landing to occur at White Sands over the course of the 30-year shuttle program.
NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with the Space Shuttle Atlantis on top lifts off to begin its ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center.
A night view of the orbiter Atlantis being loaded onto one of NASA’s Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Photo taken at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
The Space Shuttle Challenger atop Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905, after leaving the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards.
This was the ferry flight that took the orbiter to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its first launch. July 4, 1982
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 911, with the Space Shuttle Endeavour, begins the ferry flight from Rockwell’s Plant 42 at Palmdale.
NASA 911, the second modified 747 went into service in November 1990. It has special support struts atop the fuselage and internal strengthening to accommodate the added weight of the orbiters.
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with Space Shuttle Discovery flies over the Virginia on April 17, 2012 after a flyover of Washington, D.C.
The fly-over, occurred near the conclusion of a ferry flight from Kennedy Space Center to the Dulles International Airport.
Space Shuttle Discovery was deliver to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour atop 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft sets up on final approach for landing at LAX.
A NASA F/A-18 chase plane flies tight formation close beside in the final moments of the SCA-Endeavour’s Tour of California. September 21, 2012.
