Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!glasgow!willisa
From: willisa@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Mark Willis)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: 104% on shuttle launch
Message-ID: <2859@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Date: 26 Apr 89 15:27:09 GMT
References: <883@sactoh0.UUCP> <9130002@hpwrce.HP.COM> <2516@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <2591@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: willisa@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Mark Willis)
Organization: Comp Sci, Glasgow Univ, Scotland
Lines: 20

In article <2591@ndsuvax.UUCP> nunelson@ndsuvax.UUCP (James Nelson) writes:
>
>Some official type said (a few launches back, can't remember which one)
>after the shuttle commander said "throttling back to 100%" that the engine
>power is in relation to the original engines in Columbia.  It was because
>that the current shuttle's engines are more powerful than the engines
>originally in Columbia.  Upgrades, and all that.
>
No, because engines do not belong to a particular orbiter, but instead are
just allocated according to whichever happens to have finished reprocessing.

I always thought that the thrust level was measured at sea-level, so that
as the orbiter ascended the engines were capable of higher thrust. Or does
it work the other way round - thrust decreases with altitude? I am aware
that the engines dont require an atmosphere to "push against", but it
must have some effect.


		Mark
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