Spectacular Videos of Shuttle Piggyback Flight

By Nancy Atkinson - September 21, 2009 at 3:06 PM UTC | Space Exploration

With the shuttle retirement looming, you never know if or how often you're going to see this sight again. So enjoy these two videos of the shuttle hitching a piggyback ride back to Kennedy Space Center atop a modified 747. Space shuttle Discovery left Edwards Air Force Base in California on Sunday, Sept. 20 and arrived at KSC today, the 21st. Top, is the 747/shuttle landing at KSC (it gets good about 1:20 in) and below is really pretty footage of the duo getting ready to leave Edwards just at dawn, and the lighting is just plain gorgeous.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com