Here’s a sight we haven’t seen much since the shuttles began landing regularly at Kennedy Space Center, the same place they’re processed and launched from, instead of on the other side of the continent at Edwards Air Force Base:

This was the way the shuttle orbiters first entered the public consciousness during the Enterprise‘s ATL flights, before we civilians ever got a look at the now-familiar “stack” of solid-rocket boosters and external fuel tank, and it’s how the orbiters get home if they have to land somewhere other than at Kennedy. Basically, we’re looking at a tow-truck operation. It’s a tow of staggering statistics, a roughly 90-ton spacecraft physically anchored to the top of a 159-ton airliner, but a tow, nevertheless. If you don’t know your airplanes, the “tow truck” is a Boeing 747, still one of the largest airliners in the world even after 40 years of operation. NASA has two of them (technically referred to as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA) that have been specially fitted out for shuttle-hauling duty. Interestingly, the first was purchased from American Airlines and was still sporting the AA livery — red, white and blue stripes running horizontally down the length of the fuselage — during the early days with Enterprise. And here’s another fun bit of trivia: on both planes, the mechanism the orbiter mounts to sports hand-painted instructions to “Attach Orbiter Here… Black Side Down.”

One of the SCAs came through the Salt Lake area with an orbiter on its back about a decade ago, circling the valley several times before landing at SLC International, where it was on display to the public overnight. As I recall, I caught a glimpse of it flying along the eastern mountain range, but like a damn fool I didn’t make the time to go to the airport and actually see it. Now in the waning days, I’m kicking myself hard for that. It’d be nice if the orbiter destined for the California museum stopped by here on its way west, but I’m not holding my breath…

Photo credit: Ken Kuhl