Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!killer!texbell!bellcore!jupiter!karn
From: karn@jupiter..bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: QUESTION: Shuttle round trips to the moon?
Message-ID: <13440@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 14 Jan 89 08:44:56 GMT
References: <14549@oberon.USC.EDU> <2443@phred.UUCP> <373@atlas.tegra.UUCP>
Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com
Reply-To: karn@thumper.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn)
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 15

>I thought it barely made it to about 100 miles.  Can it really get an
>apogee of 400 miles?

Yes, it can, but you sacrifice quite a bit of payload capacity.

The altitude the shuttle can reach depends strongly on the payload mass,
orbital inclination, the eccentricity of the orbit (high altitudes are
easier if you make them the apogee of an eccentric orbit), and whether any
extra fuel tanks are carried for the OMS. It also depends on the specific
orbiter being used.

The Atlantis flight that launched Lacrosse was operating at about the very
limit of its capability for the payload mass and the orbit that was reached.

Phil