Talk about how things are connected through cultures, across channels and oceans. Did you know that there is a direct lineage to the Space Shuttle from a horse's behind?

One of the fundamental constraints of the design of the Space Shuttle was that the SRBs (the Solid Rocket Boosters) had to be transported to the launch site by rail (a safety issue). Railroads pass through tunnels which then limited the maximum diameter of the SRBs. The tunnels' widths were dictated by the width of the tracks. The width of the tracks were set by the tooling used by the coachmakers who built the cars and who carried their tooling over from England. Their tooling dimensions were made to match the widths of the roads in England which were first carved out by the wheels of Roman Chariots. And of course, Roman chariots were built just wide enough to accomodate two horses striding abreast. Thus, one of the fundamental constraints of the Space Shuttle was the width of a Roman horse's behind.