Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!mailrus!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
From: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Vandenburg never to used?
Summary: *Mothballed*
Keywords: Fully operational
Message-ID: <6813@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: 4 Oct 88 03:38:30 GMT
References: <41680@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Reply-To: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: Independent Users Guild
Lines: 31

In article <41680@pyramid.pyramid.com> andy@pyrtech.pyramid.com (Andy Mascsak) writes:
>In recent articles it appears that everyone has written off the Vandenburg
>facility for shuttle launches.

Everyone, in this case, includes the Air Force, which announced that
Vandenberg was mothballed for the indefinite future as of last year.

>Having lived near there for 28 years, my understanding of the state of the
>facility is that it is fully operational and waiting for a shuttle to
>launch.

My understanding is that (a) there were severe quality control problems
which threatened to cost millions to fix and set the launch schedule
way back even BEFORE the Challenger explosion; and (b) there were
safety issues with launch ground tracks, weather conditions etc. which
made launches all but unacceptable in light of the tightened
post-Challenger criteria.

>It is also the only way I know of to get the suttle into a polar orbit.
>That type of orbit definitely has some scientific and military advantages.

Welcome to the rediscovery of the Mixed Fleet.  :-)  Shuttles from KSC
with a northerly roll (instead of the southerly roll Discovery took)
can place smaller payloads in high inclination orbits, suitable for
polarization via PAM or IUS or whatever, although the Orbiter does not
go polar itself.  If you have something larger to put in polar orbit
directly, talk to the nice folks at Delta.
-- 
Tom Neff			UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
	"None of your toys	CIS: 76556,2536	       MCI: TNEFF
	 will function..."	GEnie: TOMNEFF	       BIX: t.neff (no kidding)