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From: arg@warwick.UUCP (A Ruaraidh Gillies)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Solid Rocket Boosters - quantity
Message-ID: <1526@ubu.warwick.UUCP>
Date: 9 Mar 89 16:06:09 GMT
Sender: news@warwick.UUCP
Reply-To: arg@warwick.UUCP (Ruaraidh Gillies)
Organization: Computer Science, Warwick University, UK
Lines: 25

Having just subscribed to sci.space.shuttle, and read through some 60-plus
items in a short space of time, I found that a good few of them are status
reports of the 3 shuttles and SRBs. "Oh neat," I thought, and then got
faced with screenfuls of acronyms and code numbers. But that's not my point.
What *is*, is, "How many SRBs are there?" The parts of the status reports
about the SRBs seem to imply (to me, anyway) that there are 2, ie one pair.
Waaaay back in the late seventies, my grandparents went on a holiday to
Florida, and brought me back a book on the Shuttle. This was, of course,
when the first mission was scheduled to be in '79, and by now they were
supposed to be going up *almost* once a week. One possible function of the
shuttle was supposed to be rescue of crippled missions in orbit. Now, how long
does ~it take for SRB turnaround? Could they be fished out, checked,
refuelled, shipped to KSC or VAFB (wherever there is another shuttle ready for
lift-off) in a day, say? I was always under the impression that there were 3
pairs of SRBs?
All enlightenment accepted.
PS: When is the next mission planned for? Nothing appears on the news in
Britain until the day before the launch nowadays.
+============================================================================+
Contact me on:     | Ruaraidh Gillies   | "Many men have tried."
 arg@uk.ac.warwick | 2nd year Comp Sci  | "They tried and failed?"
  or               | Warwick University | "They tried and died."
 arg@warwick.UUCP  | Coventry CV4 7AL   | (Rev Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam &
                   | Great Britain      |  Paul Atreides -- Dune)
+============================================================================+