Boeing 747SP with NASA Space Shuttle - Kokkola, Finland

Boeing 747SP with NASA Space Shuttle at Fairford in Gloucestershire, England (photograph by David Smith).

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) are two extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners that NASA used to transport Space Shuttle orbiters. 

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 then mated them with the SCAs for ferry flights.

EUROPA stamp 2016 - "Ecology in Europe"