Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: launch rates
Message-ID: <1990Sep25.033816.16652@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <10195.26fde341@pbs.org>
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 03:38:16 GMT

In article <10195.26fde341@pbs.org> pstinson@pbs.org writes:
>           1967..1968..1969..1970..1971..1972..1973  TOTAL
>
>Saturn V     1     2     3     1     2     2     1     12

Um, could we get the numbers right?  1969 saw four Saturn V launches, not
three.  Note, also, that pre-1969 launches were ramping up the launch
rate -- Apollo 9, in early 1969, was the first Saturn V launch that was
considered a "production" launch, not encumbered by major debugging work
on KSC facilities and equipment -- and post-1969 launches were slowed down
by the Apollo 13 accident (which is why there was only one in 1970) and by
a deliberate decision to slow the pace to give more time for science
feedback in a no-longer-open-ended program.  The original schedule, set
just before Apollo 11, called for an 11-week interval between launches
through 1971 -- note that only in 1985 did NASA exceed that rate with the
shuttle, with KSC visibly overstrained -- and presumed still brisker
operations following that for work leading up to a lunar base.
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