Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Heavy Lift Capacity Boosters Message-ID: <1988Sep21.164415.19974@utzoo.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <677@eplrx7.UUCP> Date: Wed, 21 Sep 88 16:44:15 GMT In article <677@eplrx7.UUCP> lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Deleski) writes: >She stated that NASA at this time does not have any heavy lift capacity >boosters, and that it would take ~1.2 Billion dollars to design and build >one. >This struck me as rather odd since the Saturn V booster to this date has >the heaviest lift capability of any booster built by anyone. >Now, I know that the Saturn V has been scrapped, but with such a capable >booster having already been designed and flown several times, wouldn't it >be easier to resurrect the Saturn booster and fly them again rather than >designing a new one? Eugene, better hurry up with the revised frequently-asked-questions list! For those who can't wait, one of the things I sent in to Eugene to be added to the list was this: -------- Q. Could the Saturn V be revived as a heavylift booster? A. In principle, yes. In practice, there are many problems. Most of the specialized production tooling is gone. Some of the plans are gone. Some of the subcontractors are gone. Nobody remembers how to start an F-1 engine safely (!) (some of the details never got into the documentation). The launch facilities at the Cape have all been altered for the shuttle. It wouldn't be quite as hard as building a heavylift booster from scratch, but much of the work would have to be done over. -------- Incidentally, there is reason to believe that the heaviest version of Energia probably has greater lift capacity than the Saturn V had. -- NASA is into artificial | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology stupidity. - Jerry Pournelle | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu