Pack bags for May 31st, 2010 Last Shuttle flight scheduled

Brian Thorn wrote

Isn't that exactly what happened when the Saturn V
was retired in favor of the STS?

That was the plan. The reality was 6 years.

And there was more on the line then, too.
An unmanned space station (Skylab) was depending
on STS for a reboost. Didn't get it. Poof.

At least during this gap the US can buy launch seats
to ISS from the RKA, although I shouldn't be at
all surprised if RKA "discovers" they need to raise
the price of the tickets post-STS.

I wouldn't rule out a 6 year gap this time, either.

I wouldn't rule out an infinite gap. Ares looks to
me a lot like the effort to rebuild the WTC in NYC.
7 years later it's still a hole in the ground.

After STS is parted out to museums, Branson/Rutan
gen3 hardware may get back to ISS before NASA's
deja vue Apollo II Lite Jr. hardware does.

--
Regards, Bob Niland
http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com
NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 07:34:56 -0700 (PDT), rjn
wrote:


And there was more on the line then, too.
An unmanned space station (Skylab) was depending
on STS for a reboost. Didn't get it. Poof.

No it wasn't, that was an afterthought. There were no plans to occupy
SkyLab beyond SkyLab 4. And it wasn't all Shuttle's fault. When
launched in 1973, SkyLab was expected to have a 9-to-10 year orbital
lifetime, instead it came down in 1979. Shuttle was expected to fly in
November 1978 but slipped to April 1981. The Shuttle/SkyLab TRS flight
was originally to be something like the 5th or 6th Shuttle flight. As
the Shuttle was delayed and SkyLab's entry period advanced, that moved
all the way up to STS-2 before the two dates passed one another going
in opposite directions.

At least during this gap the US can buy launch seats
to ISS from the RKA, although I shouldn't be at
all surprised if RKA "discovers" they need to raise
the price of the tickets post-STS.

Count on it.

Brian