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From: bill@sigma.UUCP (William Swan)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Space Station from Shuttle Tanks
Message-ID: <457@sigma.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Nov-85 15:37:58 EST
Article-I.D.: sigma.457
Posted: Fri Nov 29 15:37:58 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 2-Dec-85 03:27:55 EST
References: <8511191259.AA24626@decwrl.DEC.COM> <275@kovacs.UUCP>
Reply-To: bill@sigma.UUCP (William Swan)
Organization: Summation Inc, Woodinville WA
Lines: 19

In article <275@kovacs.UUCP> rivero@kovacs.UUCP (Michael Foster Rivero) writes:
>[...]	  As an aside, if the external shuttle tanks were  re-designed
>	to   ride  all  the  way  to  orbit,  they  might  make  great
>	pressurized bulk storage units that could  be  attached  to  a
>	space   station  framework.  [...]			  With
>	shuttles going up on a once a  month  basis  during  SDI,  you
>	would  have  a  LOT  of  pressurized space at the end of every
>	year.

(I just subscribed to this group, apologies if this is old ground...)

I worked on the Shuttle project from '72 to '75. I seem to recall that
they were planning on carrying the external tank into orbit, the idea
being exactly as Mr. Rivero proposed, to create a Space Station out of
the expended tanks. 

Has this changed? Do they drop it before (final) orbit now?
-- 
William Swan  {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!sigma!bill