Ahouxa.110
net.space
utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!npois!houxi!houxa!sgk
Thu May 6 10:13:40 1982
Hidden Shuttle Costs

Most discussions of what it costs to put something into orbit are based
on $/pound, in which case the shuttle is cheaper than standard
boosters. What is sometimes forgetten, however, is that everything
on the payload must be designed to shuttle standards, e.g., telemetry.
The size constraints can also be a pain. One of the satellite people
(sic) at APL told me that these constraints cause a lot of money
in the design, both in terms of raw bucks and opportunity costs required
to fit everything into the shuttle standard. Of course I don't have
any figures, nor do I know the extent of these hidden costs, or how
they apply to shuttle-based rather than merely shuttle-carried payloads.
Any other info you folks out there may have would be interesting ...