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Old November 23rd 11, 06:13 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.history
David Spain
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Posts: 2,901
Default Plotting A New Course for NASA

While I'm working on my shopping list...

Instead of throwing money away on SLS, why can't NASA spend some $$$ right now
on studies to see what it would take to convert existing KSC assets like the
VAB and Mobile Launch Platform / Crawler to being able to take full advantage
of the EELVs (Atlas-5/Delta-5) or Falcon 9?

For instance is there any advantage to converting Pads 39-a&b to multi-fuel
capability? Should we build some new mobile launch platforms to accommodate
the different rockets?

Maybe its cheaper to restart from scratch, but I'd sure like it studied first.

I don't think SLS gives us that cheaper access to LEO that is the stated goal
of CCDev. And maybe re-using KSC assets won't either, but who can say?

Dave