The Space Shuttle Endeavour made its final trip across the U.S. in 2012 on top of a Boeing B747, with numerous stops and fly-by’s at various points along the route. It’s a sight to behold this marvel of NASA’s technical accomplishments. It also reminded me of the time we encountered a Space Shuttle while flying a C-172.

(NASA photo)

My parents were in Houston for a visit. They hadn’t flown with me much at that point, and I thought it would be fun to fly us all to San Antonio for the day – see the Riverwalk, remember the Alamo, eat some fajitas.

While westbound on V198 somewhere near SEEDS intersection, I heard ATC ask an airliner, “Would you like to see a Space Shuttle?” The airline pilot responded with a definite, “Sure!”, and ATC gave him a 10 degree vector off course for a few moments.

We were at 4000′ on an IFR flight plan, but the weather was clear and beautiful. I asked my folks, “Did you hear that? Keep your eyes open for a Space Shuttle!” They looked at me with an expression that clearly said, “Huh?” I told them to keep their eyes open and pointed upwards and ahead.

Sure enough, a few seconds later I spotted a Space Shuttle ahead and perhaps a few thousand feet above us, flying eastbound on top of a B747. My passengers didn’t see it right away, so I pointed to it. Then they said, “Wow!” Plus some other questions about what it was doing up there. (I should have said, “Maybe they went for fajitas too”, but it didn’t come to mind.)

I’m not sure what shuttle it was, however my guess is it was on its way to Ellington Field (KEFD) for a stop-over look-see for the Houston NASA folks just like Endeavour. We only saw it for about 5-10 seconds, yet it was an experience we will never forget.

We didn’t see anything spectacular on the return trip, although the fajitas were great and I did make a very smooth landing. Flying is cool!