How Julius Caesar Designed the Space Shuttle

Julius Caesar died in 44 BC, 2,025 years 1 month and 3 days before the first shuttle took off from Launch Pad 39A in Cape Canaveral. But despite more than 2 millennia separating these events, the Romans actually played a huge role in designing the space shuttle and it all had to do with a horse's ass.

To make a long story short. The 13 story tall boosters that helped the space shuttle get to space needed to pass through a tunnel. The size of that tunnel was determined by long ago when the tracks were first laid. And the gauge (the distance between the two tracks) was based on the British train tracks. And the British train tracks were based on the British trams. And the gauge of the British trams were based on the ruts in the old roads between English cities. And what caused those ruts? The wheels of Roman chariots. And so a decision by a roman emperor 2000 years in the past, ended up redesigning one of the most advanced vehicles we’ve ever made. Sometimes your decisions can have surprisingly wide-reaching consequences.