Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!ames!skipper!shafer From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: Dumb question #652 Message-ID: Date: 15 May 90 05:03:18 GMT References: <376.26477BB6@ofa123.FIDONET.ORG> <24785@netnews.upenn.edu> <3286@rodan.acs.syr.edu> Sender: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards, Cal. Lines: 53 In-reply-to: amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu's message of 15 May 90 03:23:13 GMT In article <3286@rodan.acs.syr.edu> amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen) writes: :In article <24785@netnews.upenn.edu> jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Jeff White :>In article <376.26477BB6@ofa123.FIDONET.ORG> Mark.Perew@ofa123.FIDONET.ORG (Ma :>>Let us suppose that STS-31 had an SSME failure during ascent and :>>did a TAL abort to Banjul. :>>Question: How do we get the Orbiter and HST back stateside? :>information on the last return from Edwards to Kennedy on top of the 747, :>w/ the scheduled refueling in Texas, I have to assume that: 1. the 747 wasn't :>modified to allow for in flight refueling, and 2. it has a range of at least :>1500 miles :I watched with great intrest some boeing on Cspan during the shuttle, post :challenger accident. Boeing claims to have rated the nasa 747 for special :overload ratings. They promise complete safety to load the shuttle, and full :tanks, etc. They also pointedly indicated that most of the current performance :(trouble-- or lack of good performance) is due to nasa's altitude ceiling for :ferry flights. Rockwell & Nasa basically have a cow when it looks like rain :or weather & keep it below 10K ft. There are probably some pretty good :concerns for what may/would/could/should happen but as far as I know, nothing :has been documented or proven. That isn't to say it could EVER have the :un-re-fueled range of NY-tokyo, but should be able to make the hops required :from any site. The reason that we don't fly the Shuttle (atop the 747 SCA) in bad weather is the fragility of the tiles. For documentation, get a copy of the paper that Bob Meyer wrote about tile erosion in rain and study the pictures. Snow is no problem, though. Cross winds are also a consideration. There's a big area there. The SCA/Shuttle can be recovered (in multiple legs) from everywhere except Hawaii. I was the flying qualities engineer on the in-flight refuelling feasibility study a few years ago. We ran into structural problems (fatigue cracking) that may have been caused or exacerbated by the flow fields in refuelling and, since there was only one SCA, put the effort on hold. When we get the new SCA and can document the status of the verticals, maybe we'll do it again. Having KC-10s instead of KC-135s riding on the bow wave should work a little better, too. The joke at that time was that if it landed at Hickam AFB, we'd put it on a plinth and make it a gate guard. I went down to the runway for an SCA/Shuttle takeoff once and it wasn't exactly zooming off into the wild blue yonder. It's pretty heavy and, being a older 747, a little lacking in thrust compared to the later models. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA