How Many Things Are Wrong With This 'Space Shuttle' Image

On casual inspection this image looks like a Space Shuttle boosting into orbit, but the more you look at it, the weirder it gets.
I felt compelled to try and do something, to realize this glorious creation in the only way I know how - Kerbal Space Program.
We'll return to regular service soon.
Background music is ‘Marty’s Got A Plan’ by Kevin Macleod - Incompetech.com

[@Ccs4646]

Scott: “Lets compare it to the actual space shuttle Columbia.” *Shows picture of Discovery*

[@albclean]

Good eye!!

[@dr.fistingstein1566]

Wow. Good eye indeed

[@Aereto]

Based indeed

[@usercid640]

came here to say this

[@glenpatton2576]

based

[@panda4247]

even the boosters have boosters. seems legit

[@TubbyJ420]

Yo dawg, we heard you like rocket boosters, so we put rocket boosters on your rocket boosters, so you can ride to space while you ride to space!

[@oremooremo5075]

MOAR boosters!!!

[@cosmic_cupcake]

clearly they had some problems with structural integrity and resorted to kerbal enginnering to fix it

[@teguenjoyer3842]

Boosterception

[@AvatarOfBhaal]

My philosophy when starting out with KSP!

[@gate7clamp]

Oh yeah why didn’t we think of strapping two Soyuz rockets to the shuttle carry twice the people

[@kred4849]

...by attaching a second space shuttle, of course

[@LunnarisLP]

ikr, would have been a great plan

[@jacoblyman9441]

This is big brain time!

[@cdmonmcginn7561]

i think its a proton

[@jean-baptiste6479]

Good idea to attach them together so if one fails the whole assembly fails. Artillery would try to chain two projectiles and fire them simultaneously for more damage that was a complete failure.

[@Sal-T]

"But then again Kerbal Space Program did allow me to accidentally fly a nuclear submarine into space." If one phrase encapsulated KSP, this is it.

[@simongeard4824]

Anything will fly if you stick enough boosters on it. I wonder, though... a ballistic missile submarine has a sizable collection of rocket boosters on board. How far could you lift the submarine if you somehow attached the missiles to it and fired them all?

[@markfergerson2145]

"Accidentally" is the part that gets me. How does one do that ACCIDENTALLY??

[@simongeard4824]

@@markfergerson2145 if I remember correctly, he was trying to get it into the sea, but it turned out that the hull was an effective lifting body, backed by plenty of thrust.

[@Sal-T]

@@markfergerson2145 Like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJjcaaCdbNBrnqs

[@Dominion69420]

Ive honestly done it twice by mistake

[@dylanwebster2656]

Ah yes, R-7’s as side boosters. Sounds legit

[@MushVPeets]

Does give me some ideas in KSP RSS-RO though. Energia with oversized Soyuz side boosters, anyone?

[@TheArklyte]

@@MushVPeets why not be consistent and not use Proton then? Make kerosin version of it, strap them as side booster, connect Shuttle to Energia, strap small hydrogen tank for Shuttle on top of Energia(used in Vulkan configuration). I mean, if you overkill, at least do it wrong on all levels:D

[@MrSpirit99]

The kerbal way.

[@DangItshere]

Ahh yes KOROLEV CROSS OF DEATH

[@john5311]

seems legit*

[@FandersonUfo]

As a thumbnail it does get your attention. Mission accomplished.

[@passthebutterrobot2600]

Usually a thumbnail of "cleavage" is enough to get clicks, but not rocket enthusiast clicks

[@FandersonUfo]

@@passthebutterrobot2600 - As a rocket nerd I will admit cleavage thumbs also get my attention.

[@LTVoyager]

And causes total loss of credibility for the video for the few of us left you aren’t won over by clickbait.

[@Jayfive276]

That doesn't mean it's beyond criticism. You should not just accept these things.

[@FandersonUfo]

@@Jayfive276 - I probably would not base a doctoral thesis on the guy's vid but it's a cool thumbnail.

[@M3PH11]

"how many things are wrong with this picture"? All of the things. All of them are wrong.

[@sunnyjim1355]

Now you're just being picky. :)

[@tgdm]

The longer you look, the worse it gets.

[@jesusmora9379]

it's probably less dangerous that the actual space shuttle since it has no SRBs

[@Markle2k]

@@jesusmora9379 It's only less dangerous until you get to the point where the booster's boosters have to be discarded in the Korolev Cross. At that point, we're looking to hear a big KABOOM!

[@TheZoltan-42]

@@Markle2k As this design got rid of the Soyuz centre engines you don't have to stage them separately. Probably one of the few things that make sense on the design.

[@Wampa842]

Nobody seems to have mentioned that the elevons are definitely absent.

[@AvatarOfBhaal]

They aren't, they're just welded for extra stability! :D

[@-danR]

This shuttle doesn't bother with that elevon nonsense. Just hit the RCS thrusters until you're nose-down, and drop like a stone. It's called 'taking "aerodynamics of a brick" to its logical conclusion'.

[@-danR]

Also unmentioned is that the shuttle isn't in rollover tail-down mode.

[@hellothere5843]

@Kepano 808HI ailerons*

[@blue9multimediagroup]

@@hellothere5843 not when the wing runs to the back of the craft

[@_Nat3345]

I first read it as “A shuttle load full of whiskey...” 😂

[@Magellann365]

Same! Hah

[@leozachary9601]

That's the one I'd go up with.

[@wyrmofvt]

Looks like someone was helping themselves to the payload, then.

[@greggrimsley5337]

That explains everything

[@SimplySpace]

"There's no central core" *Comrade Dyatlov has entered the chat*

[@RmsTitanic59]

And the reactor blows up

[@samarvora7185]

Nah, he's still on the toilet.

[@chloekaftan]

technically that is true, they never called it the central core, they called it Bloc A

[@Norsilca]

Hey man, great channel.

[@DerrickBommarito]

Oh man I lost it when the shuttles as booster stages for a soyuz came up!

[@FighterAceee94]

4:39 at this point the crew wished they still had those ejection seats

[@anarchyantz1564]

WHOOP WHOOP PULL UP WHOOP WHOOP PULL UP WHOOP WHOOP. Was what went through my mind when I saw that, seconds before the ground went through Jebediah's mind.

[@legokill1019]

Lies jebediah would be going Weeeeeeh the whole time

[@anarchyantz1564]

@@legokill1019 No that was his bladder. :)

[@keco185]

They clearly should’ve put Saturn Vs on the sides instead

[@alt8791]

no no no no no they should have had the same design but use a full Saturn V stack as the ET. At least then it would somewhat justify the multiple clips of Saturn V stage separation footage throughout the vide.

[@lukeskywalker9731]

No, have the 2 strap SLS onto the Saturn V as boosters, then strap 2 of that that onto the BFR, then strap 2 of that that onto the SeaDragon, and then put the shuttle on the side.

[@ScottMaday]

When your graphic artist gets paid $50 to make an image as quickly as possible, they end up frantically google searching “rocket parts” and indiscriminately pasting them together in Blender

[@flodartify]

The last one didn't end to a deadly lithobreaking moment, so let me call that a succes!

[@jesusmora9379]

smart rs25 reuse

[@edwinrobert7192]

Your dad is a pencil case

[@flodartify]

@@edwinrobert7192 excuse me, what does it mean? English is not my birth language...

[@SolarShado]

I literally said, out loud, "any landing you can walk away from..." when it didn't explode...

[@edwinrobert7192]

@@flodartify i let autocorrect decide what i wanted to type, that was the outcome 😂😂

[@pezz_pezzer]

That was a pretty excellent water landing at the end Scott, nicely done.

[@dandaly7305]

Yes - nice ditching. Maybe go gear-down the next one...

[@jkenny1]

@@dandaly7305 Wouldn't that make more problems? Feels like the rear gear would "snag" from the high drag then slam the front down and slow it down too quickly.

[@danlock1]

Yeah... without displacing any water, even!

[@LMixir]

Ah, that emergency shuttle water landing takes me back.

[@princecharon]

It was a good landing, too: the crew seem uninjured, and the shuttle didn't sink.

[@kristianevangelista6384]

Ah, that abort to orbit and land to sea escape system. 😂

[@RCAvhstape]

It makes me happy, in a way, that Scott Manley also wastes his time on nonsense like the rest of us.

[@ultrafox2773]

What about uLtRa FoX? That second thumbnail picture with the two space shuttles literally made me laugh out loud!

[@amirabudubai2279]

That is about the most kerbal thing I have ever seen.

[@himssendol6512]

1:07 I don’t know if it’s just me but I don’t see any bell nozzles at the back end of that shuttle. I see two aerospikes.

[@MatteoMori]

*Everyday astronaut is triggered

[@dawid12301d]

I see two toroidal aerospikes and one big linear aerospike below them.

[@BattleRushGaming]

How Many Things Are Wrong With This 'Space Shuttle' Image Scott Manley: Yes

[@Mireaze]

The idea of putting small payloads on the top of the boosters isn't bad, good way to get small experiments into the upper atmosphere without having to do extra launches

[@rayceeya8659]

I'm guessing it started out as a Buran concept image.

[@zeevtarantov]

Buran (well, Energiya) used Zenit boosters, not Soyuz boosters.

[@rayceeya8659]

@@zeevtarantov Oh I know, i get Scott's confusion over this because none of it makes sense. The shuttle motors are what got me. I immediately asked "Where are the main engines?". Buran didn't have main engines. It relied entirely on the Energia to get it to orbit. It's orientation is wrong too since both craft would have entered space belly up.

[@masskilla469]

Scott did you know NASA are having behind the scenes talks on another Shuttle because of the Material advancements in the way they seal the re-entry foam on the Booster and Shuttle? They have had significant improvements on tests they have done on the Unmanned X37B. The new way of sealing the reentry foam significantly eliminates it from breaking apart on launch and it has better thermal properties that can withstand much hotter and colder temperatures.

[@darylcarpenter4649]

That awkward moment when the Soviets stole all of our Space Shuttle blueprints, got them mixed in with their Buran blueprints, and said oh screw it.

[@Cby0530]

When someone who is a hopeless idiot in spaceflight history tries to make clipart of a space shuttle.

[@Jehty_]

But why and how? Why wouldn't the artist just look at a real photo and copy it?

[@anarchyantz1564]

@@Jehty_ Whoa, whoa whoa! Logic? That's cRaZY talk!

[@Inetman]

Because you have to somehow link Russians with Columbia catastrophe! =)

[@Nanolis]

Russia colluded with the piece of foam that fell off!

[@Sonlirain]

@@Jehty_ Because someone made the photo or video of it and could slap them with a copyright claim. It may sound ludicrous but people were actually sued by copyright/patent trolls like that. And of course no one can ever claim they made a photo of an unmarked NASA shuttle taking off using soviet rockets.

[@nicosmind3]

I assume they were delivering 3 payloads. Makes perfect sense :D

[@taiwanisacountry3117]

0:39 that's space shuttle discovery xDD

[@YossiRafelson]

Pretty nuts because literally the next graphic has the right orbiter pictured.

[@darrengreen7906]

exactly what I was going to comment!

[@blue9multimediagroup]

They're both built the same

[@taiwanisacountry3117]

@@blue9multimediagroup different name tho

[@blue9multimediagroup]

@@taiwanisacountry3117 semantics. Aside from a few technical differences, they're pretty much the same model. Rather take that over the mess they had before lol

[@johnpreisler6713]

"Flight Com! I can't hold it! She's breaking up! She's break - " Scott Manley, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.

[@juniorballs6025]

"How hard do you have to squint for this image to become acceptable?"

[@littlesayonara3216]

I'm tired of squinting

[@Ink_25]

Just close your eyes.

[@Anvilshock]

@@Ink_25 Probably what the creator did, too.

[@alt8791]

"yes"

[@robjohnson1138]

6:10 “Any landing you can walk... er... swim away from is a good one.”

[@merinsan]

I've got to be honest, when you did the mid video outro and cut back in, I was hoping to see you build the Soyuz with 2 shuttles as boosters.

[@theenigma7290]

How not to get demonitized: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

[@ChrisPage68]

Foxtrot Uniform Bravo Alpha Romeo

[@punchysonichu5395]

Juliet Uniform Sierra Tango Whiskey Alpha India Tango, *Tango Hotel Echo Yankee* Whiskey India Lima Lima Bravo Alpha November Tango Hotel India Sierra, Tango Oscar Oscar, Charlie Uniform Zulu Golf Oscar Oscar Golf Lima Echo India Sierra Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo 'November Echo Victor India Lima

[@Awgolas]

I was so hopeful and then that "Check Yo Stagin'" popped up and it had me laughing loud af

[@danlock1]

f is relatively quiet in many cases.

[@mattstorm360]

That two shuttles on a rocket idea reminds me of this old strategy war game. One of the rockets had space shuttles attached to it so multiple shuttles can reach space at the same time.

[@wickrider]

This is fine, just set SCE to AUX, it's science. Cheers,

[@ylette]

5:55 Great water landing. Which begs the question how a real space shuttle would handle it. Would it sink immediately? Would they have any chance of getting out before it sank?

[@the_puzzle3412]

Whisky Tango Foxtrott

[@GURken]

Lima Mike Alfa Oscar

[@donnelangelogarcia6949]

Hotel Alfa Hotel Alfa

[@canberradogfarts]

Look OUT, its "pig latin" fir milklinneal Zeds.

[@danlock1]

@@canberradogfarts More like "pig NATO phonetic alphabet" ;-)

[@stiimuli]

that was a hell of a water landing at the end though XD

[@Marksman123771]

@Scott Manley, I just realized that I need to see a Korolev Cross Fractal of rockets in KSP, and I think you are just crazy enough to do it. How many can your computer handle?

[@MrBensella]

Scott, you shows us the crush completion just to show us how you manage to land the buran shuttle on the ocian like a boss! Hail to the king of KSP!!

[@derjohnnyb90]

me counting the Errors in this picture: one, two, ... yes

[@kostasastro]

"how many things are wrong with this picture"? YES

[@alexlandherr]

“We’ll return to regular service soon.” - Scott Manley, November 17 2019.

[@declan9876]

I love that this single image needed an entire video

[@KuraIthys]

Wait... Manley? Kerballing? Have... I travelled back in time somehow?

[@alt8791]

It would have been better if he had let Old Him narrate.

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

4:21 - Hey, at least the crew survi- oh, nevermind.

[@LockeRobsta]

I know this video is basically a shitpost but the intro made me realise how grateful I am of you, Scott. If you asked me 5 or 6 years ago "Whats wrong with this picture?" I would have said "The boosters look weird". but after watching your content for several years now I instantly recognised the Soyuz rockets, the strange engine profile of said Soyuz, the odd staging of the boosters, and the minuscule shuttle engines. *I just wanted to thank you for everything you've taught me and your viewers!*

[@LockeRobsta]

Looking thorough the comments I see I missed a lot of other details. Always more to learn.

[@_aullik]

I really liked the switcheroo, really cracked me up when i saw that on twitter.

[@omnibeet]

Therapist: Soyuz Shuttle isn't real, it can't hurt you Soyuz Shuttle:

[@CassGenadius]

Did you not use music to avoid Copyright attacks from sony?

[@IOwnThisHandle]

There was music at the end of the video

[@danlock1]

He mentioned being in a hurry, and he might still be suffering from post-Spain-burglary issues

[@Agent-ic1pe]

I made a space shuttle with a Saturn V as the external fuel tank in KSP. The Saturn V landed on the Mun and splashed down safely like a boss, while the space shuttle returned from LKO and landed on the runway. Probably the best thing I've done in KSP so far.

[@gerrit2107]

ha! wisky tango foxtrot :)

[@brian554xx]

One of the things that stood out to me was that although a lot of care was given to the hinges of the payload doors, there are not two separate doors. There's one piece, from the hinges we can see, over to presumably the hinges we can't see. Doors don't do well without a free end that can swing open. And the shape of that superdoor is perfectly cylindrical instead of the bulkier real thing. Ask yourself if you would design a minivan to mimic this shape. Edit: replaced "cargo" with "payload."

[@mistrants2745]

It got worse the longer i looked...

[@typograf62]

I once saw a drawing of a space shuttle. The doors to the cargo bay continued into the crew cabin. I assume that this was a proposed cabriolet space shuttle. The drawing was, if I remeber it correctly, on a cd-rom with useful drawings that our bright boss brought home frome the US. Many of those images were hilarious. A pistol missing the trigger, a naval gun that could not be elevated, a settler woman with a hefty plastic surgery on her mammae a huge party dress and a large gun and so on.

[@cullyn]

Nice one, almost clicked away!

[@RinoaL]

i love that you let this get to you.

[@dolkslab]

I mean it seems kinda pointless to say at this point but the orbiter should be on the bottom during ascent right?

[@samspeed6271]

I'll admit that when I read the title on the thumbnail of 'An entire shuttle load of whisky tango foxtrot' I stopped at whisky first time I read it. So, 'entire shuttle load of whiskey' was what initially went through my head, followed by 'damn lucky astronauts on the ISS must be pretty happy with this'. Give me a break though, I'm tired and my pain won't let me sleep, so daft things go through my head at times.

[@p4p3rm4t3]

About to catch a plane? Fly safe!

[@flashgordon3715]

I imagine an intact shuttle would float for a long time

[@ogreth9438]

From the icon i thought " this guy has got to be a moron" I wasn't disappointed

[@streglof]

I especially love the piano hinge used for the cargo bay doors.

[@wafflesarecool1]

I saw this the other day and couldn’t stop laughing, Made my day seeing that you made a video about it

[@noostroi]

That pic of the twin shuttles just cracked me up! Awesome!!! I did not know that I needed it in my life!

[@matrick1356]

*sees title on notification* okay, artist implementation? *sees **0:04* *HOLY SH*T WTF HOW WHAT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED MY MIND... WHY???*

[@IOwnThisHandle]

Put this comment under the category 'caps cringe'

[@theatom7264]

The Space Shuttle would have been so much better had they used recoverable liquid fueled boosters. Imagine if they used two miniaturized Falcon 9s. That would be quite the concept.

[@galaxlordcz3933]

0:43 that is in fact space shutle discovery not columbia

[@thomasfholland]

Scott’s idea for bonus material: Crash compilation

[@icollectstories5702]

I think he knows his audience.

[@-Gorby-]

As soon as I saw that image I thought "Oh please, please make that in KSP so we can see it fail spectacularly"

[@ve2mrxB]

Anybody noticed the screws holding the "boosters" to the main tank?

[@yamagishisan]

hey, leave the person alone; they're an artist, not a rocket scientist.

[@jamieanderson7676]

Another thing that was wrong with the image is that the space shuttle's delta wings have no elevons. So they can only steer on the yaw axis.

[@bennybooboobear3940]

“Whisky Tango Foxtrot” lmao

[@guard13007]

Found it much easier to find the three correct things than count the wrong things.

[@xlynx9]

When your main engines fail, and your sidebooster engines fail, but luckily, you remembered to put sideboosters on your sideboosters.

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

0:40: Actually, that's _Discovery_ you have on the left there. _Columbia_ had highly-distinctive black wing strakes not seen on any other orbiter, which can be seen in any image that shows _Columbia's_ dorsal surface, such as this one: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/Download/Image/22035/L

[@blue9multimediagroup]

Closer to it than what was used

[@paintnamer6403]

" Truth is such a ridiculous contraption would not fly" said Wilber to Orville, hold my whisky said science.

[@Tondadrd]

6:07 The crew: "What the hell did just happen? Did we land a Space Shuttle on the ocean?"

[@Odd_Taxi_epi04]

Why the surprise? It is clearly designed to land on the ocean! See how well it floats!

[@1000dots]

Never leave the theatre until the post-credits scene

[@buckstarchaser2376]

I love the launch area in the 2-shuttles 1-soyuz picture. Also, ace water landing. 10/10 - Would survive.

[@Anamnesia]

More LOL's please! this video gave me the biggest laugh today!!!

[@denispol79]

Now I'm wondering how buoyant the Shuttle is.

[@merendell]

Probably about the same level as it's flight characteristics. It was discribed as flying like a brick.

[@denispol79]

@@merendell hehe, yeah I heard a version that compared its aerodynamics to pair of pliers. But as far as buoyancy goes, I think it won't sink immediately if it lands on water in one piece (which it won't, considering the landing speed).

[@merendell]

@@denispol79 true. If the cargo bay stays water tight it has a decent chance of displacing enough water to float. I don't imagine that happening with the speed of that landing though.

[@Hitperson]

Come on Scott, don't leave us hanging. Need to see that shuttle powered Soyuz now.

[@videolabguy]

That last one was your basic astronaut diaper filler for sure! The three Kerbal facial expressions made it all the more enjoyable.

[@andrewlee-do3rf]

3:46 omg, it's glorious NEEDS MOAR SPACE SHUTTLES!!!!!!

[@bottlekruiser]

What's kinda spooky is that the video with that thumbnail is in my "up next" bar right now

[@mitchmccarron8337]

Also the shuttle itself always maneuvered to the underside on take-off, it never sat on the top as depicted in the thumbnail ;) Love your work. Mitch from Australia.

[@BenYork-UBY]

the side of the space shuttles fuselage has some sort of gold/brass colored strip that shouldn't be there. It appears to be the hinges for the space shuttle door Because this is in fact a small plastic toy model of a space shuttle. So yea, this was cobbled together using a toy and some Soyuz rockets

[@willjosephson]

0:37 "If we put the actual space shuttle Columbia..." *puts up photo of Discovery*

[@blue9multimediagroup]

Closer than what was used

[@Eric_D_6]

The bay on the shuttle in the thumbnail also seems to have only one giant door with what appears to be scaled up brass hinges from a kitchen cabinet all along it, or maybe it's three doors with two of them being really small at the front and back.

[@WacKEDmaN]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!... nice one Scotty!

[@gravityzap08]

3:45 okay, that is just hilarious, and more bizarre than the thumbnail you talked about in this video.

[@bradbrown8759]

Glorious! You Sully Sullenburgered a space shuttle. U Da kerbal 👍

[@Neawoulf]

Reminds me of a picture in a tv magazine i've seen in the 90s and for some reason that memory survived in my fragile brain for at least 20 years: There was an image (i think it was for Star Trek IV) of the captured klingon Bird of Brey landing on Vulcan and the discription was: "Battle in Space! The Enterprise gets attacked!" How many mistakes can you put in one little picture discription? It wasn't a battle, it wasn't in space, it wasn't the Enterprise and the ship on the picture didn't get attacked. Some people are definitely not nerd enough ... or are we just too much nerd?

[@jamisonw.327]

Would be interesting to see you try making a sky hook in ksp. Just saw a video on it and would like to hear your more realistic take on it.

[@richb313]

The best part of the video was watching how excited your crew of Kerbal Astronauts were to be going to space again.

[@alt8791]

I actually got this in my recommended feed, and I almost died.