Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: access to space; how to deny
Message-ID: <1988Aug29.172658.10957@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <2039@pompeii.cs.swarthmore.edu> <1703@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu> <6138@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 88 17:26:58 GMT

In article <6138@dasys1.UUCP> tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes:
>...  Do we have another crawler handy? 

There are two of them, as I recall.

>How's the
>guard on the OPF or VAB during off-mission cycles? 

Fairly tight, and getting tighter.  Not perfect, there are too many people
in and out, but getting in there isn't trivial.

Actually, I think the major remaining single-point failure mode in the
system is the VAB itself.  This wouldn't be a significant issue, were it
not that the shuttle design requires live SRBs within the VAB.  (NASA
used to have an ironclad no-fuel-in-the-VAB rule.)  An accidental ignition
could really make a mess of the place.
-- 
Intel CPUs are not defective,  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
they just act that way.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu