December 13, 2010 was frigid in St. Louis with the temperature about 16 degrees, but it was a good day to fly, especially for one of NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) and Boeing’s Phantom Ray. The flight marked the first time in the SCA’s 33-year history that an aircraft other than a space shuttle orbiter hitched a ride on the back of the modified Boeing 747. The engineering and planning behind the special flight were more than a year in the making as NASA and Boeing worked out the details through a commercial space act agreement.