willpittenger":9enrip33 said:
Will they be retired with the Shuttle? Or does NASA plan to reuse them in the Constellation program?
In the real hard world of budgets, there is no guarantee that anything is solid fact.
What SHOULD happen can be guessed at:
The two SCA, (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft/747s,) will probably spend some time in ready storage and be used for other NASA research programs into heavy airplanes. (One participated in a wake turbulence study, as an example.)
The STA, (Shuttle Training Aircraft,) are still useful as NASA bizjets.
The T-38s, (which have been upgraded to better-than-new,) are vital to keep the crews of anything current in high performance flying, as well as letting them move around on a realistic, non-airline, schedule.