Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pacbell!att!ihlpl!knudsen
From: knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Soviet Shuttle Dynamics
Summary: Strap-ons off center
Message-ID: <7458@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Date: 1 Nov 88 19:07:19 GMT
References: <62428@ti-csl.CSNET>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 27

Funny you should mention that.  I was looking at my newspaper photo
of Buran/Energiya yesterday, which shows the stack horizontal in
the VABski, and it sure looks like the strap-ons are mounted
a bit closer to the orbiter, much as in your ASCII artwork.

At first I thgought there may be a 3rd booster underneath
(3 at 120 degree angles, like shark fins), but of course
that's exactly the wrong thing to do to correct the imbalance
problem you brought up.  You were very astute.

BTW, the long repost of the Russian rocket designer's description
of Energiya states that either two or four boosters can be strapped
on.  They are not "zeroth stages" since the central rocket is also
ignited at liftoff (after proper strap-on ignition is verified).

Also he implies that ALL Energiya payloads are to be carried
off-axis on the side like the shuttle.  How would the four
boosters be fitted?  Well, looking down on the stack,
if the payload sits at 12 oclock, then the boosters might be
at 10 and 2 oclock and the other two at 8:30 and 3:30.
I guess that for any given center of mass, you can move the
boosters around to compensate.

Verry clever, these Russkies!
-- 
Mike Knudsen  Bell Labs(AT&T)   att!ihlpl!knudsen
"Lawyers are like nuclear bombs and PClones.  Nobody likes them,
but the other guy's got one, so I better get one too."