Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!wasatch!utah-gr!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wes
From: wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Shuttle computer reprogramming
Summary: Nope, that's not true...
Keywords: shuttle, wind, programming
Message-ID: <213@obie.UUCP>
Date: 7 Oct 88 05:17:09 GMT
References: <6689@nsc.nsc.com> <1543@hp-sdd.HP.COM> <5485@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
Organization: the Well of Souls
Lines: 25

In article <5485@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>, cjl@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Charles Lord) writes:
> I read that the main reason for M-T's contract was pork barrel
> politics on some senator's part.  There are capable SRB mfg
> facilities on the Gulf that are capable of making one-piece SRBs
> and barging them to KSC.  The whole reason for o-rings is that
> you cannot ship a whole SRB from Utah to Florida intact.

Yes, yes, an no.  The reason for the o-rings is that Thiokol couldn't
figure out how to build a single-pour booster motor without having it
crack internally (which is fatal to the motor).  I know for a fact that
you can ship a booster roughly the size of an SRB from Vandenberg AFB to
Hill AFB Utah on a rail car, we just got ours Friday that way.  I think
the shuttle SRBs are longer than the Peacekeeper booster, but that isn't
a problem - the rails between here and the coast are pretty straight
these days.

	Wes Peters

P.S. In case you're wondering, I work for GTE at the Peacekeeper System
Engineering Test Facility (SETF) at Hill AFB.
-- 
                     {hpda, uwmcsd1}!sp7040!obie!wes

         "How do you make the boat go when there's no wind?"
                                 -- Me --