Dragon Wings Space Shuttle Discovery w/ Boeing 747 1/400 NAscale diecast metal and plastic parts. Fully assembled DRW-56184

Discovery was one of three operational Space Shuttles in NASA’sleet. As the third orbiter in service, it’s was the oldest Shuttle in the fleet. Its maiden flight occurred in August 1984. Among its achievements was the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope. When retired, it had performed 39 missions, the most recent being this year. To transport its fleet of spacecraft, NASA employs two extensively modified Boeing 747s. For example, the specially modified aircraft can be used if a Shuttle needs to be transported from a landing site to the Kennedy Space Center launch complex, or for any other journey that is too far for ground transport.

These large transporter aircraft are appropriately enough known as Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), one being a 747-100 and the other a 747-100SR. The Boeing 747 is ideal for this task owing to its low-wing design, although the extra drag and weight reduces the aircrafts’ range to 1,850km. On a transcontinental flight, the SCA would have to land several times to refuel. When the Shuttle program concludes this year, the SCAs will carry the remaining spacecraft to their final resting places, before themselves being retired.