Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Launch Rates Message-ID: <1989Sep26.154558.15298@utzoo.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <1989Sep26.005923.15211@cs.rochester.edu> Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 15:45:58 GMT In article <1989Sep26.005923.15211@cs.rochester.edu> dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz) writes: >Is anyone but me increasingly perplexed by NASA's snail-like >launch schedule? If the shuttles can be flown faster than they >currently are, why isn't NASA doing it? Probably mostly shortage of manpower for orbiter processing work. Which boils down to shortage of money. >At the current flight rates the shuttle is prohibitively expensive, >much worse than expendables... The NRC shuttle-launch-frequency report a couple of years ago concluded that there was no significant cost difference for heavy payloads. (The Titan 4 isn't what any sane man would call "cheap".) For medium-sized payloads the expendables are probably ahead somewhat now because of the availability of commercial launches with less paperwork. -- "Where is D.D. Harriman now, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology when we really *need* him?" | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu