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Interestingly, there was some doubt within NASA as to whether the 747 piggyback was a good idea. One of the proponents of the idea was a scale model builder, an
by nickff 6y ago
Interestingly, there was some doubt within NASA as to whether the 747 piggyback was a good idea. One of the proponents of the idea was a scale model builder, and made a model to demonstrate it; the model's success was persuasive enough that they continued to study the idea.
In the end, the 747-Space Shuttle combo actually has better crosswind landing characteristics than a normal 747, but it has atrocious fuel economy.
- duxup 6y agoI wonder how many great ideas have been missed out on because our most basic filter / mental models that allow us to just choose basic candidates for options are ... wrong. "Wait no you can't do that, let's look into this other thing."
- nickff 6y agoMy favorite example of a near-miss because of that sort of opposition is lunar orbit rendezvous.[1] Yuri Kondratyuk, Tom Dolan, and John Houbolt were the protagonists in that instance; I generally disfavor the 'great man' theory of history, but I think those three made a real difference. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Rendezvous.html https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Rendezv...
- duxup 6y agoTIL that. Thanks for sharing.
- lostlogin 6y agoMoving rockets and shuttle parts reminded me of the story of the limits hit when organising shuttle transport - railways have a gauge and tunnels are made to fit the gauge. The gauge was chosen based on cart wheel spacing and this was chosen by the romans. A bit of googling suggests this may be an urban myth as weight. Eg https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/4064/how-fair-is-the-claim-that-shuttle-boosters-diameter-is-dictated-by-the-railroad https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/4064/how-fair-is-t...