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From: fisher@moon.dec.com
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Two Shuttles at Once???
Message-ID: <1455@hiatus.dec.com>
Date: 12 Sep 89 17:11:06 GMT
References: <12154@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> <3330022@hpindda.HP.COM>
Sender: news@hiatus.dec.com
Lines: 38

In article <12154@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>,
smb@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Steven M. Bellovin) writes:

> 
> In article <3330022@hpindda.HP.COM>, mears@hpindda.HP.COM (David B.
Mears) writes:
> > This is the first time I've ever heard any hint at the possibility of
> > getting two shuttles ready for launch on separate pads.  Since I haven't
> > heard anything in this forum about this, I assume that the NYT got their
> > story mixed up, but I thought I'd post and get people's reactions.
> 
> No, the story was accurate.  There are two launch pads; the second
> was completed (or rather, converted for the shuttle) around the time
> of the Challenger explosion.  Having two launch pads lets them prepare
> two launches more or less in parallel, though there are some activities,
> such as preparing the SRBs, that they don't want to do like that for
> safety reasons.  (This was mentioned in the original NY Times article;
> dunno if your paper picked up the whole story.)
> 
> There are not sufficient facilities, I believe, to actually launch two
> within a few days of each other, as was done once during Gemini days,
> but a lot of the preparation can be overlapped.

It is true that there are 2 pads.  That does not make the story accurate.
I have not heard of the suggestion that they would have two shuttles at
the pad at the same time for LDEF retrieval, although I would be willing
to stand corrected.

What I DO know is that they have never used both pads in parallel.  As
Henry noted in another message, 51L was the first launch to use pad 39B.
All 24 previous launches used 39A.  All shuttles since 51L have used
39B.  39A was shut down for modifications.  I don't know when it will be ready
for use again.

There are, of course, parallel shuttle preparations, as the daily shuttle
status reports indicate.

Burns Fisher