On Sun, 08 May 2005 15:26:42 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:

There's talk now that there may be some Shuttle components used on the
finished system (probably for an unmanned cargo carrier) and that they
may want the CEV to be larger than currently planned:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7345

....Yeah, I forgot to mention that in today's blog, too. Apparently
someone's dug up the old Shuttle-C papers, and pointed out that
there's really nothing wrong with the basic ET & SRB configuration if
you're just using it to boost cargo, and some costs could be cut by
keeping the Shuttle-C and using the existing Shuttle pads. Again, this
whole mess is going to have to go back to the drawing boards at least
three or four times, but keep in mind that happened with the Apollo
Block I at least twice before they finalized the design.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr