Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!kcarroll
From: kcarroll@utzoo.uucp (Kieran A. Carroll)
Subject: Re: Shuttle Payload Questions
Message-ID: <1989Feb10.145924.6208@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <26162@cci632.UUCP> <1989Feb9.022607.2075@utzoo.uucp>
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 89 14:59:24 GMT

Henry Spencer writes:

>In article <26162@cci632.UUCP> djw@cci632.UUCP (David Wright) writes:
>
>>    ...I thought Atlantis was the orbiter that was to launch from Vandenburg.
>
>I don't remember which one was scheduled to be first for Vandenberg, but
>there was no plan to dedicate specific orbiters to specific launch sites
>that I know of....

"From the moment it was approved in April 1972,
America's space shuttle was intended to be a "national
launch system" replacing all expendable military and
civilian launch vehicles by 1980. It is unlikely that the
shuttle would have been built without this goal: the 
famous Mathematica study "proved" that the shuttle would be
economical only if it carried all of America's space traffic.

"Since a majority of America's space launches have been
for military purposes, it was inevitabe the the shuttle
would require the participation of the US Air Force,
the officiall launch agency for not only the military
services, but for American intelligence agencies as well.

"In exchange for its grumbling support, the Air Force
demanded -- and got -- changes in the design of the
vehicle to accommodate its need for improved cross-range
and large payloads, among others. For its part, the Air
Force was to develop an inertial upper stage and fund the
construction of orbiters 105, 106 and 107.

"These `blue' shuttles would have been `dedicated' to
classified military missions launched (in some cases) into
polar orbits from the re-designed space launch complex six
at Vandenberg Air Force Base...

"...(after DoD shuttle funding started to wane) a brief attempt
to dedicate OV-103 `Discovery' to the DoD failed..."

From "The Manned Space Fligth Engineer Programme", by Micheal Cassutt,
pp.26-33, Spaceflight, Vol.31 #1, Jan. 1989 (Spaceflight is
published by the British Interplanetary Society, 27/29 South Lambeth
Road, London, SW8 1SZ, England).

-- 

     Kieran A. Carroll @ U of Toronto Aerospace Institute
     {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!kcarroll