Space Shuttle on 747 (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

Technically, the aircraft you see here mounted on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is not a Space Shuttle, it's correctly referred to as an Orbiter vehicle or Orbiter for short. The Space Shuttle is the combination of the orbiter, the external fuel tank and the two solid rocket boosters.

The orbiter leaves Earth's atmosphere as a rocket and returns as a supersonic glider, traveling at up to 17,500mph (Mach 25) when it first re-enters the atmosphere. The orbiter is the largest and heaviest glider in operation, weighing 110 tons and with a length of just over 124 feet, a height of 69 feet and a wingspan of 79 feet. Some people would say that it's not a very good glider, since it's completely incapable of gaining altitude but rather falls at a hair-raising 10,000 feet of altitude per minute, which results in a 40 degree glide path, slowing only as it pulls up or "flares" for landing. Touchdown happens at 215mph, considerably faster than the 160mph most airliners land at. Astronauts training to fly the shuttle do part of their training in a Gulfstream corporate jet whose engine thrust is reversed to simulate the rapid descent of the orbiter.

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is one of two 747s modified with shuttle attachment points and endplates on its horizontal tailplanes to increase stability when loaded with the Orbiter.