Space Shuttles Can’t Fly Across the Atlantic

Wrong Vehicle for the Job

Space shuttles were not designed for atmospheric flight. They launched vertically on rockets, orbited Earth, and glided unpowered to a runway landing. They had no engines for sustained horizontal flight and could not “fly across” an ocean.

Transatlantic travel requires airliners (7–8 hours) or ships (6–7 days). The shuttle’s operational domain was space, not the sky.