Santa Shuttle

Santa Shuttle

Monogram 1/200

BACKGROUND

Development

In the early 1970's, Santa Claus knew that he was going to have to make some major changes in his distribution system to handle increasing worldwide demand for Christmas toys. He had set up a set of warehouses across the world to resupply his sleigh in the early part of the 20th century. This had worked well, but by now had become obsolete.
St. Nick had always followed aviation and space exploration with interest. While he'd always relied on good old-fashioned magic to get the job done, he was still fascinated by technology.
In the spring of 1976, Santa saw that the American space program was in trouble. Lack of direction and funding issues threatened its very existence. Santa entered into negotiations with Rockwell International and NASA for a bold new venture that could save the space program, and modernize his delivery system. He contracted with Rockwell for a fleet of nine Space Shuttle Orbiters (built to his specifications,) plus one backup ship, and parts support. NASA would also help out by providing technical assistance. The deal would significantly upgrade Santa's operation, and provide much-needed cash flow for NASA and its contractors.
St. Nick wouldn't need the bulky, wasteful boosters and external tank, or unwieldy launch facilities. Using the same magic he uses to make his reindeer fly, Santa's Astroelves could take off and land the shuttles from a runway carved in the arctic ice.
The last of Santa's shuttle fleet was delivered in October, 1979, and went into service in January, 1980. The ships were named and numbered accordingly:

00 - Rudolph
01 - Dasher
02 - Dancer
03 - Prancer
04 - Vixen
05 - Comet
06 - Cupid
07 - Donner
08 - Blitzen
09 - (Backup) Clarice

Operations

Santa's entire orbital delivery system was put into service in 1982. It took over a year to build a set of orbiting warehouses stationed in geosynchronous orbit. Throughout the year, Santa's elves produce toys at his North Pole workshop. They're then loaded into the shuttles, which then deliver them to the orbiting warehouses.
On Christmas eve, Santa departs the North Pole in his sleigh, which is equipped with a sophisticated navigational system. Throughout the day on December 24th, the shuttles load up on toys at the orbiting warehouses, and by the time Santa begins his journey, ships 01 through 08 have taken up assigned orbits, with 00 acting as a command and control ship.
In order to keep from alarming the military of various (possibly unfriendly) nations, the shuttles employ a sophisticated ECM (Elven Cloaking Magic) system to remain unobserved.
As Santa makes his deliveries, he calls for resupply. This is where the shuttles come in. Each is equipped with to deliver supply pods with pinpoint accuracy. These use the same technology used to target nuclear warheads, but in this case, they're called MIRTHs, or Multiple Individually-targeted Re-entry Toy Holders. Each has its own retro-rocket and heat-sheild. They are deployed from the shuttle bay by the robot arm (built by Santa's Canadian friends.) As they run out of toys, the shuttles return to the warehouses for more.
Once the MIRTHs enter the atmosphere, they deploy parachutes. Santa is then able to intercept them in the air with an onboard recovery system built into his sleigh. This way he doesn't have to land or even deviated from his flight plan.
The orbital delivery system was put into full-scale use on Christmas eve, 1982, and was a stunning success. The shuttles' operational record has been outstanding. Over the last 22 years, the backup ship Clarice has only been used twice, once in 1987 when Donner developed a pressure leak, and in 1994 when Vixen's computers crashed. Santa plans to continue operating the shuttles for the foreseeable future, although of course he'll always make the actual deliveries in his trusty reindeer-drawn sleigh.

THE MODEL

For the December meeting a few years back, our IPMS chapter had a theme night: If you were Santa, what would you're sleigh look like? I happened to have an old Monogram Snap-Tite Space Shuttle kit laying around, and in a fit of insanity, came up with the previous story.
The kit was built fairly straightforward, although I removed the molded-on landing gear doors and faired over the openings. The lettering was done with dry transfers, while the wing insignia and SANTA logo were hand-painted on decal film.
The cargo bay was knocked together using bits from the spares box, along with various bits of styrene tube. The MIRTHs were some interesting beads I found in the craft aisle. The robot arm was made by sliding pieces of styrene tube over a core of lead bus wire (making it posable) with a stcratchbuilt claw on the end.

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

Steve

Page created December 24, 2004