Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!delta.eecs.nwu.edu!phil From: phil@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (William LeFebvre) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: Hawaii as a launching site Message-ID: <2274@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 19 Dec 89 21:04:09 GMT References: <1989Dec19.172843.10529@utzoo.uucp> Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: phil@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (William LeFebvre) Organization: Northwestern U, Evanston IL, USA Lines: 26 In article <1989Dec19.172843.10529@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >In article IA80024@MAINE.BITNET (Nicholas C. Hester) writes: >>After reading the responses to my query on shuttle landings at KSC and the >>use of Vandenburg for future launches, I was wondering about the possibility >>of using Hawaii. I had heard that it was up for consideration regarding the >>launching of commercial vehicles and was wondering what the chance was of >>building a new shuttle launch facility there... > >Roughly zero. In some ways it is a better place to launch from, but the >cost of building a new shuttle facility would be enormous, and I doubt very >much that it could be justified. I'd also expect some practical problems;... Correct me if I'm wrong.....aren't the SRB segments sent to some place other than KSC for refurbishing and repacking? And aren't they sent by rail? I seem to recall that one of the constraints on the length of the segment (and one of the arguments in favor of segmented SRBs) was the requirement that they be carriable via freight train. Such a processing facility would have to be built on the same island as the launch facility to make Hawaii work. And that seems to be a bit of a steep start-up penalty. William LeFebvre Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Northwestern University