[sci.space.shuttle] 747 Shuttle Ferry

echristian@lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov (ERIC ECHRISTIAN) (04/18/91)

Seeing a few entries on the Shuttle Ferry reminded me: I have a puzzle that
perhaps someone on the net can solve.  Does anyone know why there was a
747 Shuttle Ferry parked at the airport in El Paso, TX in February?
Several of us saw it, but couldn't figure out why it was there.  There was
also a Guppy parked next to it.

Thanks

Eric Christian            ECHRISTIAN@LHEAVX.GSFC.NASA.GOV 
Everything to excess, moderation is for monks.  Lazarus Long (R. Heinlein)

shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) (04/19/91)

In article <4961@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> echristian@lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov (ERIC ECHRISTIAN) writes:

   Seeing a few entries on the Shuttle Ferry reminded me: I have a puzzle that
   perhaps someone on the net can solve.  Does anyone know why there was a
   747 Shuttle Ferry parked at the airport in El Paso, TX in February?
   Several of us saw it, but couldn't figure out why it was there.  There was
   also a Guppy parked next to it.

That's not a Shuttle Ferry, that's a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).  To
be precise, that's the new SCA that was just recently delivered.  The old
SCA (905) lives here and I see it every day.

Why is it in El Paso?  Because that's where JSC keeps it (the same is true
of the Guppy).  The Vomit Comet (used in zero-g studies) is there too.
JSC has quite a little presence in El Paso.

Everything has to be somewhere.
--
Mary Shafer  shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov  ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
           NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                     Of course I don't speak for NASA
 "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot