Xref: utzoo sci.space:15483 sci.space.shuttle:4047 sci.astro:5691
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsh!lmg
From: lmg@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (lawrence.m.geary)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle,sci.astro
Subject: Re: Future Space Missions
Message-ID: <5714@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Date: 13 Nov 89 13:50:54 GMT
References: <1989Nov12.001720.6482@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: lmg@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (lawrence.m.geary,ho,)
Followup-To: sci.astro
Organization: none
Lines: 25

In article <1989Nov12.001720.6482@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>... Why aren't there plans to use appropriate boosters?
#
#Because there are none.  Although it is fashionable to malign the Shuttle
#as a planetary launcher, the Shuttle/IUS combination is the heaviest
#booster available (outside the Soviet Union).  Titan/Centaur is in second
#place by a considerable margin.
...

Didn't we use Titan/Centaur to launch the Voyagers?

#The only available-now launcher that could do a better job on Cassini
#would be Energia.

Available now is not the issue. Cassini is launching toward the end of
the century. We succeeded in going from initial concept to a moon landing
in less time than that. Now you are confirming my suspicions that we are
dead in the water as far as progress on ELV's goes. No program. No plan.

Buying launches on Energia from the USSR would be in our mutual interest;
it's one of the few things they can sell that we need. That probably
guarantees that we'll never do it.
-- 

     lmg@hoqax.att.com    Think globally ... Post locally    att!hoqax!lmg