Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Vandenburg never to used?
Message-ID: <1988Oct5.171140.8092@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <41680@pyramid.pyramid.com> <1462@viper.Lynx.MN.Org> <12984@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 88 17:11:40 GMT

In article <12984@cisunx.UUCP> nixon@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Bill 'Deus' Nixon) writes:
>I thought I heard after Challenger, that Vandenburg was too risky a
>launch site.  Didn't they have to modify the Shuttle Main engines in
>Discovery (or maybe Atlantis) to even attempt a launch from Vandenburgh?

No, it could be done, but with rather limited payloads.  The trouble was
that some of the payloads that people (read:  "USAF") wanted to launch
on shuttles from Vandenberg were pretty heavy.  That's why there was work
done on various ways of improving performance.

>Also, didn't one of the early military/shuttle flights of Columbia get
>into a polar orbit?  ...

Not really.  One of the Spacelab missions used an orbit with a rather
higher inclination than usual, but it wasn't a polar orbit -- it was
something like 60 degrees.
-- 
The meek can have the Earth;    |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
the rest of us have other plans.|uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu