Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Launch capability (USA)
Message-ID: <1989May27.021628.14396@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <457@cybaswan.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 27 May 89 02:16:28 GMT

In article <457@cybaswan.UUCP> iiit-sh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood) writes:
>How many shuttles can be launch-ready at the same time? I'm of
>the opinion that pads 39A and 39B can take shuttle-launches, and that the
>VAB has sufficient bays to allow the stacking of two missions in parallel.

There are indeed two pads, although 39A has not yet had all the upgrades
39B has had in the last few years so it is not considered operational at
this instant.  There are four bays in the VAB, although I think only two
of them are fully equipped to stack a shuttle.

However, in practice, skilled manpower is short due to budget restrictions,
and there are probably minor items of equipment that aren't duplicated
either.  The major infrastructure is there to mount two missions more or
less simultaneously, but in practice even one at a time is sometimes a
strain for the current KSC crews.  Doing two in parallel just isn't
practical without beefing up the crews and the facilities.
-- 
Van Allen, adj: pertaining to  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
deadly hazards to spaceflight. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu