Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!haven!decuac!hadron!klr From: klr@hadron.UUCP (Kurt L. Reisler) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: New Topic Message-ID: <804@hadron.UUCP> Date: 21 Nov 88 14:33:27 GMT References: Reply-To: klr@hadron.UUCP (Kurt L. Reisler) Organization: Hadron, Inc., Fairfax, VA Lines: 36 In article pv04+@andrew.cmu.edu (Philip Verdieck) writes: > >Do you realize that as things stand NASA has only supplies for 20 more >launches? > >A week or two ago a critical booster supplier went out of business. >A West Virginia chemical/plastic/whatever firm that bellied up is >the ONLY SUPPLIER OF RAYON!!! > >I think that is the term. What I am referring to is a critical part of >the boosters nozzle, or something. Due to economic and environmental >problems this firmed sucked suds in early November. They are the sole >supplier of this needed component. > >Now this is a topic for conversation.... Not really. Avtech (probably misspelled) is located in Winchester Virginia, not West Virginia, and has been back in business for the past two weeks. Seems that when the shuttle program went on hold, NASA canned the contracts to purchase the rayon that is used for the shuttle engines. Avtech is the ONLY supplier in the US. Avtech did shut down for about a week. The resulting fast shuffle and finger pointing did result in 2 large contracts (one from NASA and one from the DoD) which will keep Avtech running (and polluting) for the next few years. It is interesting that this was allowed to happen at all. Kurt Reisler (703) 359-6100 ============================================================================ UNISIG Chairman, DECUS US Chapter | Hadron, Inc. ..{uunet|sundc|rlgvax|netxcom|decuac}!hadron!klr | 9990 Lee Highway Sysop, Fido 109/74 The Bear's Den (703) 671-0598 | Suite 481 Sysop, Fido 109/483 The Pot of Gold (703) 359-6549 | Fairfax, VA 22030 ============================================================================