Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hplred!hintzman
From: hintzman@hplred.HP.COM (Jeff Hintzman)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Atlantis and the DoD
Message-ID: <1320001@hplred.HP.COM>
Date: 12 Nov 90 18:19:19 GMT
References: <16716@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA
Lines: 18

/ hplred:sci.space.shuttle / mvk@pawl.rpi.edu (Michael V. Kent) /  6:37 pm  Nov 11, 1990 /

>>        I suppose it could be attributed to coincidence; the shuttles
>>are supposed to be pretty much identical, after all.  Still, I have to 
>>wonder.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the shuttles are not identical.  Discovery and
Atlantis are newer than Columbia and thus have some "improvements"
that Columbia does not have, the most significant of these being that
the newer shuttles are lighter in weight, and thus able to lift
slightly heavier payloads.  I remember reading that the HST could
not be launched on Columbia because it was so heavy that it would
be close to or over Columbia's maximum payload.

Or I could be wrong.

Jeff Hintzman
HP Labs