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From: serre@boulder.Colorado.EDU (SERRE GLENN)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: NASA: A Can-Do Agency Becomes A Can't Do Bureaucracy
Summary: A couple Titan facts, corrections.
Message-ID: <23786@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 22 Jul 90 23:15:54 GMT
References: <8824@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <=^1$NW#@rpi.edu>
Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: serre@tramp.Colorado.EDU (SERRE GLENN)
Organization: University of Colorado, boulder
Lines: 29

1) The shuttle is not a heavy-lift booster.  

2) The Titan IV is not a heavy-lift booster.  

3) The Titan IV is on-line now, not five years from now (Although it will 
only be launching Air Force payloads for a while).  

4) The Titan IV (with upgraded SRMs) will be able to launch shuttle-sized
payloads (the Titan IV can launch almost-shuttle-sized payloads now) and will
be online in a couple of years (not five).  

5) There isn't much civilian market for launches of satellites weighing
over 30k lbs. (this is one of the reasons that the Commercial Titan is dying).  

The steadily increasing price tag of the Space Station is outrageous, even
if it has increased from 8 billion to 37 billion instead of 8 million to 
37 billion (so Newsweek got a decimal a little wrong :-).  

As for NASA being O.K., but just having a little trouble temporarily, 
I'll paraphrase one of Henry's signatures: "Apollo - 8 years to the moon, 
Space Station - 8 years to nothing."

Finally, does anyone out there have any idea of what the Shuttle costs in 
dollars per pound to LEO?  E-mail me your data, and I'll summarize.  

Thanks for your attention.  

--Glenn Serre
serre@tramp.colorado.edu