🚀 go-pugleaf

>Er, Dean, we did launch the Enterprise from the 747 at altitude.
>It was quite easy to see, too.  I saw it all five times.
>
>Having come into this in the middle, maybe I'm misunderstanding what
>CAPS LOCK means by launch.  If it's launching in the sense of going
>to orbit, you're quite correct; no such capability exists.  There's
>no 747 in the world that can carry the Shuttle with the external
>tank and SRBs.  The empty Shuttle is nicely within the 747's capacity,
>but adding any of the rest of the stack would exceed it.
>
>
>--
>Mary Shafer

   Trust us on this one, Mary... you DON'T want to know.
   
   Actually, a loaded Shuttle is within the 747s capacity too. Witness
   the ferry flight of Columbia from Edwards to KSC after the STS-32
   mission. The LDEF satellite was still in the payload bay.
   
   However the discussion, very weird discussion, that you dropped
   in upon was about lighting the engines on the back of the 747 and
   going into orbit, a'la 'Moonraker'. Suffice it to say that CAPS LOCK
   seems to have trouble differentiating fact from fiction.
      
   -Brian
   
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Brian S. Thorn                                    "If ignorance is bliss,
BrianT@cup.portal.com                               this must be heaven."
                                                -Diane Chambers, "Cheers"
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