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From: don@umd5.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: RE: Columbia Replacement
Message-ID: <847@umd5.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 31-Jan-86 21:19:06 EST
Article-I.D.: umd5.847
Posted: Fri Jan 31 21:19:06 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Feb-86 01:08:36 EST
References: <860129202758.780479@HI-MULTICS.ARPA> <3203@sun.uucp>
Organization: U of Md, CSC, College Park, Md
Lines: 44

>> Given that the shuttle program will continue, how will the program deal
>> with a decline in their orbiter inventory?  I can see three
>> possibilities.
>>  (1) NASA will not replace the Columbia, and will simply fly fewer
>> missions with the remaining shuttles.
>>
>>  (2) NASA will have Rockwell build another shuttle.  This will take some
>> time (and a lot of money), but would restore the 4th shuttle.  (Some
>> have said that there are already a substantial number of spare parts, so
>> that everything wouldn't have to be done from scratch.)
> 
> the cost figure I've heard is 1.1 billion, and about a year (I think). That
> is before any re-engineering needed to prevent whatever caused the loss of
> the Challenger.
> 

The DoD has allocated (but not appropriated) about $2 billion in case there
is a "catastrophic loss" of one orbiter from Vandenburg AFB.

> >  (3) NASA will have Rockwell refit the Enterprise to make it fully
> > operational.  Nobody has mentioned this one.  Is it even possible?  I
> > don't know how far the Enterprise is from being an operational orbiter,
> > instead of a boiler plate shuttle replica.  Anybody have any ideas?
> 
> It is not possible. Enterprise, being first, was more a mockup than a real
> orbiter and is significantly heavier than the production schedules. They
> would have to significantly reduce payloads to orbit it, and I'm not really
> sure if it was ever certified as spaceworthy.
> 

The US Space Shuttle Enterprise has already been donated by NASA to the
Smithsonian Institute. I've heard the cost of retrofitting the Enterprise
would exceed the cost of a brand-new orbiter.

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