The idea to make a Space Shuttle arose back in 2016, but the original plan has never been finalized. Only a few months ago I caught an opportunity to make a Space Shuttle as a birthday gift for a friend of mine, so I decided to come back to the once-abandoned project.
Let me outline just a little bit of history that was necessary for myself to know what exactly I were sewing.
Space Shuttle is a type of spacecraft that used to be manufactured in the US between '70s and '90s. They built 7 of these Shuttles, granting each of them with its individual name. As a successor to three first ships that crashed at some point, 'Discovery' was the first Shuttle to successfully complete all its planned missions (almost 40) and retire (in 2011) in one piece after nearly thirty years of service. It's now exhibited in Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
The purposes of Space Shuttle missions were, to mentinon a few, carrying huge telescopes, sending satellites to space, and carrying out some types of space research. A Shuttle was sent to space by a rocket it was attached to, then it would detatch once in space and complete its mission. It would return to Earth by entering the atmosphere (which is a process much complicated than it sounds) and basically gliding (flying without the engine power) to its very specific airport of destination. Piloting such a ship undoubtedly required remarkable skill.
As for the handicraft itself: The most challenging part was its fuselage, especially the front and rear parts, because of an unusual shape. I say unusual, because while I've already got used to the relatively simple shapes of 'ordinary' airplanes, the Shuttle surprised me with its mostly angular geometry. As a result, the front part, especially the nose, is much shorter than it's supposed to be. On the other end, the rear part of the Shuttle is basically a bulkhead wall with three engines attached to it, quite a simplification when you look at the real Shuttle.
What I enjoyed most were the wings, and, later, attaching the fuselate to them. Wings are connected into one integral piece that also makes the Shuttle's underbelly. This way at least the bottom part of the fuselage is flat as it's supposed to, as the Space Shuttle is rather of a angular shape.
The last step was to embroider the markings and other details. Turns out, the black elements seen on the real Shuttle are in fact made out of thousands of rectangular panels, and by a coincidence, really, I used a dotted fabric for some of these parts, which in fact now look more realistic. This does not refer to the Shuttle's nose, which is made from a plain black fabric.
You can also see the metalic silver lining on the leading edges of the wings, also imitating the real thing.
The light grey lining atop the fuselage represent edges of the panels which, in a real spacecraft, can be opened to, for example, release the satellite. Black dots on the sides, on the other hand, are not windows, as I initially thought - they are simply hinges of the panels.
Finally, the markings. These include the Shuttle's individual name, being 'Discovery', the United States flag and name, and NASA logo. The latter comes in two types, the more detailed logo embroidered atop the left wing (including the 'NASA') and the simplified logo sewn onto the ship's sides. What determined the simplified vs detailed logo wasn't my laziness, but rather the size of the logo, making it feasible (or not) to fit in the letters.
Below a few more pictures, including the comparison with the real Shuttle.
Picture of the real 'Discovery' (taken from Wikimedia Commons).