The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft are two extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners that NASA used to transport Space Shuttle orbiters. One is a 747-100 model, while the other is a short range 747-100SR; the SCAs were used to ferry Space Shuttles from landing sites back to the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center. The orbiters were placed on top of the SCAs by Mate-Demate Devices, large gantry-like structures that hoisted the orbiters off the ground for post-flight servicing mated them with the SCAs for ferry flights. In approach and landing test flights conducted in 1977, the test shuttle Enterprise was released from an SCA during flight and glided to a landing under its own control; the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy was considered for the shuttle-carrier role by NASA, but rejected in favor of the 747. This was due to the 747's low-wing design in comparison to the C-5's high-wing design, because the U. S. Air Force would have retained ownership of the C-5; the first aircraft, a Boeing 747-123 registered N905NA, was manufactured for American Airlines and still carried visible American cheatlines while testing Enterprise in the 1970s.

It was acquired in 1974 and used for trailing wake vortex research as part of a broader study by NASA Dryden, as well as Shuttle tests involving an F-104 flying in close formation and simulating a release from the 747. The aircraft was extensively modified for NASA by Boeing in 1976. While first-class seats were kept for NASA passengers, its main cabin and insulation were stripped, mounting struts were added, the fuselage was strengthened. Vertical stabilizers were added to the tail to aid stability; the avionics and engines were upgraded, an escape tunnel system similar to that used on Boeing's first 747 test flights was added. The flight crew escape tunnel system was removed following the completion of the Approach and Landing Tests because of concerns over possible engine ingestion of an escaping crew member. Flying with the additional drag and weight of the Orbiter imposed significant fuel and altitude penalties; the range was reduced to 1,000 nautical miles, compared to an unladen range of 5,500 nautical miles, requiring an SCA to stop several times to refuel on a transcontinental flight.

Without the Orbiter, the SCA needed to carry ballast to balance out its center of gravity. The SCA had an altitude ceiling of 15,000 feet and a maximum cruise speed of Mach 0.6 with the orbiter attached. A crew of 170 took a week to prepare SCA for flight. Studies were conducted to equip the SCA with aerial refueling equipment, a modification made to the U. S. Air Force E-4 and 747 tanker transports for the IIAF. However, during formation flying with a tanker aircraft to test refueling approaches, minor cracks were spotted on the tailfin of N905NA. While these were not to have been caused by the test flights, it was felt that there was no sense taking unnecessary risks. Since there was no urgent need to provide an aerial refueling capacity, the tests were suspended. By 1983, SCA N905NA no longer carried the distinct American Airlines tricolor cheatline. NASA replaced it with its own livery, consisting of a single blue cheatline; that year, this aircraft was used to fly Enterprise on a tour in Europe, with refuelling stops in Goose Bay, Canada.

It went to the Paris Air Show. In 1988, in the wake of the Challenger accident, NASA procured a surplus 747SR-46 from Japan Airlines. Registered N911NA, it entered service with NASA in 1990 after undergoing modifications similar to N905NA, it was first used in 1991 to ferry the new shuttle Endeavour from the manufacturers in Palmdale, California to Kennedy Space Center. Based at the Dryden Flight Research Center within Edwards Air Force Base in California the two aircraft were functionally identical, although N911NA has five upper-deck windows on each side, while N905NA has only two; the rear mounting points on both aircraft were labeled with humorous instructions to "attach orbiter here" or "place orbiter here", clarified by the precautionary note "black side down". Shuttle Carriers were capable of operating from alternative shuttle landing sites such as those in the United Kingdom and France; because Shuttle Carrier's range is reduced while mated to an orbiter, additional preparations such as removal of the payload from the orbiter may have been necessary to reduce its weight.

Boeing transported its Phantom Ray unmanned combat aerial vehicle demonstrator from St. Louis, Missouri, to Edwards on a Shuttle Carrier on December 11, 2010. Ferry flights transported the orbiters from Edwards Air Force Base, the shuttle's secondary landing site, to the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center where the orbiter was processed; this was common in the early days of the space shuttle program when weather conditions at the SLF prevented the shuttle from landing there. Some flights started at the Dryden Flight Research Center following delivery of the orbiter from Rockwell International to NASA from the nearby facilities in Palmdale, California. At the end of the space shuttle program the SCA was used to deliver the retired orbiters from the Kennedy Space Center to their museums. Discovery was delivered to the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, near Washington, D. C. on April 19, 2012. On April 17, 2012, Discovery was flown atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft escorted by a NASA T-38 Talon chase aircraft in a final farewell flight.

The 747 and Discovery flew over Washington, D. C. and the metropolitan area around 10 a.m

Ralph C. Sauer is an American trombonist and teacher, he was Principal Trombonist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 32 years. Sauer was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Emory Remington, he was the Principal Trombonist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1968 to 1974. During that time, he was the Principal Trombonist with the Canadian Opera Company and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, taught at the University of Toronto. In 1974, Sauer was named Principal Trombonist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by Zubin Mehta, he made his Los Angeles Philharmonic concerto debut in 1979, performing Kazimierz Serocki's Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra with Zubin Mehta conducting - a work whose U. S. premiere Sauer gave at the Eastman School of Music in 1965. In March 2003, Sauer premiered Augusta Read Thomas’s Trombone Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, he was a frequent performer with the Philharmonic's New Music Group.

He retired from the orchestra in 2006. Sauer has appeared as soloist with many orchestras and has given master classes and recitals throughout Europe, Japan, Costa Rica and the United States, he has appeared at the Stratford and Aspen summer music festivals and was visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music and Arizona State University as well as an instructor with the New World Symphony and the International Brass Festival in Melbourne. He has taught at the Norwegian Academy and the Sibelius Academy. Sauer is on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, he has taught many prominent trombonists, including Christian Lindberg. From his earliest days as a student at the Eastman School of Music in the mid 1960s up to the present, Sauer has transcribed and arranged hundreds of works by many composers, scoring them for various sized brass ensembles, trombone ensembles, tuba ensembles, trombone solos, euphonium and horn solos, his works are distributed by Cherry Classics Music. Sauer is a founding member of Summit Brass, is a clinician for Shires trombones.

He is featured on a number of recordings, including: A recording of works by Telemann, Handel and others The Mahler Symphony No. 3, with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Two discs of orchestral excerpts for trombone with commentary. These are among the most sought after discs for those preparing for orchestral trombone auditions

Starman is a fictional superhero in the DC Comics Universe, a member of the Justice Society of America. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Jack Burnley, he first appeared in Adventure Comics #61. Invited by editor Whitney Ellsworth to create a new superhero character, Burnley drew the Starman costume as a variation of Superman's famous outfit, topped with a Buck Rogers-style helmet. Gardner Fox developed the character, science-fiction writer Alfred Bester contributed Starman scripts. In the run, Emil Gershwin wrote the stories, with art by Mort Meskin and George Roussos. Starman appeared in Adventure Comics #61 through #102, All-Star Comics #8 to #23; as Starman, Ted wears a caped costume of green topped with a helmet with a fin on the top. He uses a gravity rod which allows him to fly and to manipulate energy, at times in a manner similar to Green Lantern's power ring; as Ted Knight, he is an expert scientist, having developed the rods himself. Intending it for use as a possible power source, Ted was convinced by his cousin, Sandra Knight, the Phantom Lady, to use his invention to become a costumed crime fighter.

In the original 1940s stories, Starman operated out of Gotham City, but this was retconned in the 1990s to Opal City. He was a frequent ally of the FBI and a member of the Justice Society of America for much of the 1940s and, like other mystery men of the time, serves in the wartime All-Star Squadron. In 1942 Ted enlists in the U. S. Army Air Force and serves briefly as a pilot during World War II. At this time, the love of Ted's life is a woman named Doris Lee, who chastises her layabout playboy boyfriend for his pretended laziness and hypochondria, unaware of Ted's costumed persona. Doris is tragically murdered in the late 1940s and this event, combined with Ted's role in the creation of the atom bomb, causes him to suffer a nervous breakdown, he was confined to a mental institution for a number of years as a result. In the 1990s-era Starman series, it is revealed that Ted is motivated to return to active duty in part by his own time-traveling son, Jack. Additionally, it is revealed in a 1990s retcon that Ted Knight has a brief affair with the first Black Canary in the 1960s, both events filling in blank spots in the hero's past.

Like the rest of the Justice Society, Starman spends many years in retirement following the end of the Golden Age of heroes, but returns to help mentor the team's spiritual successors the Justice League of America. During his years as a civilian, Ted Knight marries a woman named Adele Doris Drew and has two children and David. David idolizes his father while Jack disdains the silliness of superhero life and his father's perceived focus on costumed adventure over family. Starman is sidelined from hero work permanently by the events of the Zero Hour mini-series. Kept virile by the effects of an early JSA mission, Ted Knight is restored to his natural age by the temporal villain Extant, he subsequently concentrates on his original love -- science. Following Ted's retirement, David inherits his mantle as Starman, but is killed early in his career by the son of one of his father's old enemies. Jack inherits the title, although not without grievances; the retired Ted Knight sometimes advises Jack and, over time, the two estranged Starmen reforged the bond of father and son.

In exchange for Jack taking up the defense of Opal City, Ted agrees to use his cosmic-powered inventions for the benefit of mankind rather than costumed adventuring. Ted was willing to lend aid and shelter to a simple, kind-hearted incarnation of Solomon Grundy and a former Starman, Mikaal Tomas, he is targeted by the villainous Doctor Phosphorus, but he always staves off the irradiated monster. In the final battle for the salvation of Opal City, Ted Knight confronted two of his deadliest enemies, further enhanced by the demon-lord Neron — Dr. Phosphorus and Ragdoll. Although tormented by seeing Ragdoll he was able to kill Phosphorus by raising him on a slab of concrete with his cosmic rod and slamming him against the ground with the slab. Ragdoll leaves peacefully. However, the battle leaves Knight terminally ill with cancer. Ted dies in battle with his old enemy, the Mist. With a variant of his gravity rod, he transported them both into the stratosphere where the Mist's doomsday bomb could detonate without harming the city, finishing him and painlessly — with a hero's death by fire.

He appears still once more as a ghost, talking to Jack and giving him his blessing to leave Opal to live the life of a husband and father in San Francisco with his girlfriend, Sadie. Ted Knight has no superhuman powers, his abilities stem from the use of the gravity rod and the cosmic rod. These devices channel an unknown form of stellar radiation, which Ted is able to manipulate through the rod; as Starman, he possesses the ability to fly, project bursts of stellar energy and heat, create force fields and simple energy constructs, levitate objects. Extended use of the cosmic rod created a bond between it and Ted, allowing him to mentally summon the rod when separated from it. Ted possesses a brilliant intellect, mastery of several sciences, a gift for invention. In addition to the gravity and cosmic rods, Ted created the cosmic staff used by his son and the cosmic converter belt worn by his JSA teammates, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stargirl, he was at some point employed as a physics professor.