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Old June 11th 07, 07:06 AM posted to sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.policy
Fred J. McCall
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Default Maximum Rate Shuttle Launches

Charles Talleyrand wrote:

:On Jun 10, 11:33 pm, "Revision" wrote:
: Given a few extra billion dollars, and a year or two for preparation,
: what sort of sustainable launch rate could the shuttle attain?
:
: Well, let's toss out the money part .... that is looking at the problem
: backwards.
:
: Consider when a shuttle lands, it gets checked out, tweaked, new tank
: fitted, SRBs stacked. So considering no anomalies this is going to take
: a month. And with however many we have now, and allowing for some
: schedule slippage, a launch per month is do-able. (Then you get the
: invoice.)
:
:
:That seems fine. But are there enough of the specialized machines to
:build 24 SRBs per year? Can the launch pad support 1 launch per
:month? Could the tank manufacturer build 12 tanks a year if you have
:them a year's notice? What's the turn-around time on an orbiter,
:assuming a willingness to pay lots of overtime, hire and train extra
:staff, but expecting to suffer a normal amount of normal problems?
:

The original vision called for 40 launches a year (with 5 orbiters, I
believe), with an assumption of simple ground operation.

In actuality, they'd be hard pressed to manage 8 flights a year (with
4 orbiters).

The only way to do better than 8-9 flights a year is use a different
vehicle.


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw