The bigger picture:

No, the Super Guppy isn’t a fish-tank mutant. It’s NASA’s giant cargo plane.

HAVE YOU EVER wondered how NASA gets its rocket-ship parts transported? In a really big aeroplane built especially for the task. When a component in a rocket or part of the International Space Station takes flight, it’s not for the first time… The first would have been when it was transported by the Super Guppy.

Super Guppy is a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft built by Aero Spacelines and operated by NASA. Its maiden voyage was in 1965, and it’s still used today. Loading the plane is made easy because of its unique design and fold-away nose. The latter opens 110° for cargo loading, creating unobstructed access to the stowage area. A control lock and disconnect system at the fuselage break means that the nose can be opened and closed without disrupting the flight or engine control rigging.

Cargo loading is done simply and efficiently using a system of rails with special Guppy pallets, or occasionally specially designed fixtures for specific cargo. The pallets are moved by an electric winch in the floor and automatic hydraulic lock pins secure the cargo for flight. The plane has a maximum payload of 23 813 kg and weighs 46 039 kg when empty.

Supper Guppy is more than 43 metres in length, has a wingspan of over 47 metres and a height of nearly 15 metres. The plane is powered by four Allison 501-D22C turboprops, each capable of producing a colossal 4 600 shaft horsepower, which propel it to its cruising speed of 402 km/h at an altitude of 7 620 metres.

In this photo, the heat shield for Orion’s Artemis 2 mission – NASA’s first planned crewed mission to leave low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972 – arrives inside its shipping container aboard the Super Guppy aircraft at NASA’s Shuttle Landing Facility at John F Kennedy Space Center in Florida.