4 ms·

To show the comparison (737 for example here) https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/shuttle-948x1500.jpg?ver=1 https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/shuttle-94

To show the comparison (737 for example here) https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/shuttle-948x1500.jpg?ver=1 https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/shuttle-948x1500.jpg?v...

titzer 5y ago
Those size comparisons are super misleading. I've seen the shuttle and it's not that big. A 737 is pretty small. The shuttle can ride piggy-back on a 747--in fact it was designed to: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-013-DFRC.html https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-01... Also, the comparison with the Statue of Liberty is also misleading. The Statue of Liberty is on a huge pedestal that makes it stand much, much higher; the orbiter and boosters wouldn't reach the top of the SoL.
- lucideer 5y ago
  The sum of your comment seems to be the subjective belief that the statue of liberty and 737s are "not that big"... Not sure what size you'd expect the shuttles to be, but being in the same ballpark as the statue of liberty (without pedestal) seems a great deal larger than my expectations.
  - titzer 5y ago
    These are subjective things, sure. My personal feeling upon seeing the shuttle was that it was not that big, because I've seen big airliners all my life. I was expecting the shuttle to be bigger. So when I looked at the parent's infographic and saw a 737 and the Statue of Liberty there, they didn't seem right (I've also seen the SoL in-person). So the size comparisons I think are quite misleading in that graphic, and yeah, I was surprised how much smaller the shuttle is than what I expected.
  - bencoder 5y ago
    Having never actually seen the statue of liberty my sense when seeing these comparisons is that it's much smaller in real life than the version in my imagination - no matter how many times I see the comparisons, the statue remains much bigger in my head
JorgeGT 5y ago
Well, the 737 is probably the worst aircraft to compare against, given it has been enlarged by 50% from the original 737-100 to the newer 737-900! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/B737Familyv1.0.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/B737Fami...

To show the comparison (737 for example here) https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/shuttle-948x1500.jpg?ver=1 https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/shuttle-948x1500.jpg?v...

titzer 5y ago

Those size comparisons are super misleading. I've seen the shuttle and it's not that big. A 737 is pretty small. The shuttle can ride piggy-back on a 747--in fact it was designed to: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-013-DFRC.html https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-01... Also, the comparison with the Statue of Liberty is also misleading. The Statue of Liberty is on a huge pedestal that makes it stand much, much higher; the orbiter and boosters wouldn't reach the top of the SoL.

lucideer 5y ago
The sum of your comment seems to be the subjective belief that the statue of liberty and 737s are "not that big"... Not sure what size you'd expect the shuttles to be, but being in the same ballpark as the statue of liberty (without pedestal) seems a great deal larger than my expectations.
- titzer 5y ago
  These are subjective things, sure. My personal feeling upon seeing the shuttle was that it was not that big, because I've seen big airliners all my life. I was expecting the shuttle to be bigger. So when I looked at the parent's infographic and saw a 737 and the Statue of Liberty there, they didn't seem right (I've also seen the SoL in-person). So the size comparisons I think are quite misleading in that graphic, and yeah, I was surprised how much smaller the shuttle is than what I expected.
- bencoder 5y ago
  Having never actually seen the statue of liberty my sense when seeing these comparisons is that it's much smaller in real life than the version in my imagination - no matter how many times I see the comparisons, the statue remains much bigger in my head

JorgeGT 5y ago

Well, the 737 is probably the worst aircraft to compare against, given it has been enlarged by 50% from the original 737-100 to the newer 737-900! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/B737Familyv1.0.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/B737Fami...