Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!rpi!mvk
From: mvk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Michael V. Kent)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Two Shuttles at once
Message-ID: <N?$=KBA@rpi.edu>
Date: 13 Mar 91 00:24:19 GMT
References: <P00-1F#@rpi.edu> <2607@ksr.com>
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Lines: 19
Nntp-Posting-Host: jec416.its.rpi.edu

In article <2607@ksr.com> clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones) writes:
>As I said in my original post, the reason that two shuttles are ready to go at
>once is that one of them has been delayed.  You just can't count on it.  (Take
>a look at the mission designations you just gave.)  The current discussion
>started concerning what would happen if Discovery got stranded if its fuel line
>doors didn't close.  NASA would be foolhardy to launch one of the two shuttles
>with worse fuel line door problems after a failure in the one with the most
>minor problem.

I don't deny that the reason these missions were launched in quick succesion
was that there was a problem somewhere in the pipeline.  My response was to
a comment that NASA COULD NOT launch two missions simultaneously because
there aren't enough parts to go around.  I think a rescue mission would be
feasible if a second control station were added and NASA knew what the problem
was with the first mission.  Although there is a lot of parts swapping between
orbiters, it is not to the extent that NASA could not for that reason have
two concurrent Shuttle flights.

Michael Kent                                         mvk@itsgw.rpi.edu