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The Super Guppy, College

Have you heard of the Super Guppy?

The Super Guppy is a NASA cargo plane with a giant round body. NASA uses the plane to fly rocket and spacecraft parts that are too big for regular cargo planes and too fragile for long trips on bumpy highways. Aerospace engineer Naia Butler-Craig talks about the plane in the video.

Colored smoke curls into a spinning spiral of air behind the wingtip of a small plane during a NASA air flow test
In Greek myth, the Argonauts sailed with Jason on the ship Argo. Their name means “crewman of the ship Argo.”

Your word of the day is

air-uh-NAW-tiks

aero-airfrom Greek āḗr
naut-shipfrom Greek naûs
-icsa science or field of studyfrom Greek -ika

The design, construction and operation of aircraft, and the study of flight through the air.

The Super Guppy parked inside a NASA hangar in Palmdale, California, for routine maintenance

NASA’s aircraft page lists the Super Guppy’s cargo bay as 25 feet wide, and the video says about 25 feet too. Before you open NASA’s guide, make a prediction and give your reasoning in one sentence.

How wide, in feet, is the widest part you think the Super Guppy can carry?

Hint

Picture the shape of the bay. How much space does a part need around its edges?

The Super Guppy at Ellington Field in Houston, loaded with parts of a space shuttle trainer

Read the paper

NASA Johnson Space Center Aircraft Operations Division, Super Guppy Transport User’s Guide, AOD 33973 Rev C, May 2023. The guide is free to read.

NASA’s Aircraft Operations Division in Houston flies the Super Guppy and wrote this guide for teams that want to ship hardware on the plane. Teams use the guide to check whether a part fits and to plan how the part gets loaded and protected. Read Section 5, Sections 6.2 and 6.4, Figure 14, Section 6.8 and Section 6.9. Figure 14 shows the cargo bay’s cross section. The round upper part has a radius of 144 inches, and its center sits 155 inches above the cargo floor. Below the circle, the bay narrows toward the floor. Section 6.4 requires at least 6 inches of clearance between cargo and the plane’s body, and NASA prefers 12 inches. Table 1 sets the allowable cabin load at 48,000 pounds, counting the payload, pallets and adapters. Fill in the table, using 12 inches to the foot.

HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
The crew cabin of a full-size space shuttle trainer is loaded into the Super Guppy at Ellington Field in Houston

The round upper bay has a 144-inch radius, and NASA prefers 12 inches of clearance on each side.

With 12 inches of clearance on each side, the widest part the Super Guppy can carry is ____ inches.

See the table
HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
A transporter for the Orion spacecraft rolls into the Super Guppy's cargo bay during a fit check at Kennedy Space Center

Which part in the table fails the 264-inch width check for the Super Guppy?

See the table
HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
Railcars carry Space Launch System booster segments across a causeway toward NASA's Kennedy Space Center

Table 1 sets the allowable cabin load at 48,000 pounds. An SLS booster segment weighs 180 tons, or 360,000 pounds.

An SLS booster segment weighs ____ times the Super Guppy’s allowable cabin load.

See the table
HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
An Air Force airman drives a loader carrying an Orion heat shield unloaded from the Super Guppy at Moffett Federal Airfield in California

In Figure 14, the Super Guppy’s round upper bay is 288 inches across, its center sits 155 inches above the cargo floor, and the bay narrows toward the floor.

Where should the widest part of a 198-inch-wide heat shield sit in the Super Guppy?

See the table
HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
A large Orion test module sits snug inside the Super Guppy's open cargo bay at Kennedy Space Center

What does Section 5 of the Super Guppy guide say the structures that raise payloads are sized to do?

See the table
HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
Video of the Super Guppy landing at Kennedy Space Center in 2020 with the Orion spacecraft for Artemis I inside

Footnote 17 says accelerometers on the cargo rails showed a sideways push during the Artemis I landing.

Why did NASA add new flight and landing cases to the Super Guppy guide after the Artemis I airlift?

See the table
HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
Video taken from an airplane window of a wing flying high above the clouds

Table 5 lists absolute air pressure of 14.70 psi at sea level and 6.75 psi at 20,000 feet.

A structure sealed at sea level and flown to 20,000 feet in the Super Guppy has a pressure difference across its walls of ____ psi.

See the table
HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
An Orion crew module pressure vessel is unloaded from the Super Guppy at Kennedy Space Center in 2016

What must vents on a large, hollow spacecraft structure in the Super Guppy keep up with?

See the table
HardwareWidth (feet)Width (inches)Fits with 12 inches of clearance on each side?
Orion heat shield16.5
Orion stage adapter18
SLS core stage27.6
SLS booster segment, 180 tons12
The Super Guppy lifts off the runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California

NASA’s Super Guppy user’s guide lists four planning questions for every payload.

Which of the Super Guppy guide’s four planning questions does a width check help answer?

The Super Guppy parked on the flight line at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas

Which part from the table shows why the Super Guppy guide asks more than whether a part fits?

NASA's Super Guppy cargo plane lifts off from Ellington Field in Houston, its giant round body bulging above the wings

Lesson complete

Today’s word

aeronautics

air-uh-NAW-tiks

The design, construction and operation of aircraft, and the scientific study of flight through the atmosphere.

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Sources
  1. NASA Johnson Space Center Aircraft Operations Division, approved by division chief Raymond G. Heineman, Super Guppy Transport User’s Guide, AOD 33973 Rev C, May 2023
  2. NASA Johnson Space Center Aircraft Operations Division, Super Guppy Oversize Cargo Transport, NASA web page
  3. John A. Bakalyar, NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA Technical Reports Server, 2018 presentation
  4. NASA, NASA, 2016 and Orion Fun Facts
  5. NASA, SLS Orion stage adapter and media advisory, 2018
  6. Corinne Edmiston, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA, 2022
  7. NASA, SLS core stage, NASA reference page
  8. NASA, NASA’s Pegasus Barge, NASA web page
  9. NASA, NASA, 2019 and the flight back, 2020
  10. NASA, Solid rocket booster fact sheet and NASA, 2020
  11. Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Questions and Answers About Vehicle Size and Weight
  12. More NASA articles on Super Guppy deliveries: Orion pressure vessel, 2016, composite test structure to Langley, 2014 and Orion transport fixture fit check, 2019
  13. For classes that want the physics of flight, NASA Glenn Research Center’s Four Forces on an Airplane
  14. ABET, Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, 2026-2027, Criterion 3
  15. Word origins from Dictionary.com: aeronautics, aero-, nautical, -ics, astronaut, Argonaut, aerobic, aerosol, nautical mile, aerophone, nausea, cosmonaut, fuselage, turboprop
  16. Instagram original, posted March 2, 2026, not linked because Instagram needs a login