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Station to be abandoned?
{{Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2003 08:24:25 -0600
From: Charles Buckley The next Shuttle loss will be the last. Shuttle will be grounded if there is only 2 remaining in the fleet.}} Why, other than PC crap? Suppose we fly with two, and lose another, and fly with only one remaining. Suppose that last one goes up and inspection of the TPS (Thermal Protection System) shows damage such that re-entering won't be possible/safe. Still the Russian craft can eventually get everyone down, probably safely, so what's the big problem? I'd rather see the shuttle flying as long as possible, using every last bit of investment, rather than just mothball the last two orbiters for fear of political flak. Caveat: If and when there's a lower-cost safer alternative available, such that *all* proposed shuttle activities are better done using the new alternative, such that on a per-mission basis the new alternative is chosen rather than the shuttle, then at some point the last remaining orbiter never gets used again, even though it remains available in case needed. Or when the cost of refurbishing the last remaining orbiter is too high compared to operations of the new launch system, and the cost of keeping the refurbishing facilities in standby mode is just a waste, we might then formally mothball the shuttle. Note: The same goes for HST: So long as astronomers line up to use it, love to use it, beg to get to use it, etc., even after NGST/JWST is operational, so long as HST still works, let's keep it up there. Remember Palomar, with the famous but now "obsolete" 200 inch telescope, and the even smaller 48-inch Schmidt? The latter is currently a major component in a brand new state-of-art survey. Funny how old scopes with upgraded instruments can still do good work. |
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Station to be abandoned?
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Station to be abandoned?
only one remaining. Suppose that last one goes up and
inspection of the TPS (Thermal Protection System) shows damage such that re-entering won't be possible/safe. Still the Russian craft can eventually get everyone down, probably safely, To recover a full shuttle crew using Soyuz will require three of them, and the Russians don't keep that many capsules and rockets lying around. If the point described is reached, some people will die, unless OSP or its successor can get them in time. Probably NASA will not run the shuttle until that crisis is reached; it would be lethal to the organization. |
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