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