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From: santerel@clarke.cis.upenn.edu (Walter Santarelli)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: shuttle escape systems
Message-ID: <15596@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 17 Oct 89 18:34:00 GMT
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Reply-To: santerel@clarke.cis.upenn.edu.UUCP (Walter Santarelli)
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In article <1307@accuvax.nwu.edu> phil@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (William LeFebvre) writes:
>separation.  It is acknowledged that the first two minutes of
>ascent---the time when the SRBs are burning---is the most critical and
>the most sensitive to disaster.  If something goes wrong during that
>time, there is nothing that can be done.  You just have to hope that you
>can ride it out until the SRBs are separated.  You can't turn off a solid
>rocket, and in this case it is providing a very large percentage of the
>total thrust (so you can't just "eject" them at will, either).
>


This is the reason I'm still amazed that we launch people on the
current system at all. I believe the original concept called for a
re-usable liquid fueled booster. Liquid fueled boosters offer the
advantage that they can be throttled. SRB's can't. They just go. When
I was an undergrad, I had a rocket propulsion professor who stated on
more than one occasion that using SRB's for manned space flight was
not smart safety-wise. In fact, before the Challenger accident, he
stated predicted that the SRB's would be the cause of the first major
accident. 

It's the system we've got now, might as well use it as safely as
possible. Hopefully the next vehicle won't suffer from the budget
cutter's axe in quite the same way. Blame Nixon, he halved the shuttle
budget twice (at least).  


			Walter Santarelli

			santerel@grad1.cis.upenn.edu

Call your Congressman and Senators! Vote for more civilian space
funding!