Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: New Space Shuttle
Message-ID: <1989Aug12.060332.9724@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <2277@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 89 06:03:32 GMT

In article <2277@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> ecf_eig@jhunix (Ian Chesterton) writes:
>   I understand that the Endeavor (sp?) will cost about $1.2B Whats the
>   reason for not refitting the Enterprise (as Dale Brown portrayed
>   in "Silver Tower")? ...

Enterprise is overweight and below spec and generally would have to be
rebuilt extensively to make it into a flight-ready orbiter.  Without
major structural replacement -- amounting to building a new orbiter --
it could never achieve the full payload of a late-production orbiter
like Atlantis.  That's more critical than it used to be, since a more
conservative attitude about weight limits now prevails, and a lot of
major missions are weight-limited.  Building Endeavour makes sense.
-- 
V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu