Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!eder From: eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: SpaceLink news Message-ID: <1908@ssc-vax.UUCP> Date: 8 May 88 05:34:31 GMT References: <11728@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Distribution: na Organization: Boeing Aerospace Corp., Seattle WA Lines: 13 Reading all those gory details of what is happening with the Shuttle parts reminds me of how shuttle 'processing' resembles nothing so much as 'final assembly' of a commercial airplane. In other words, the Space Shuttle is re-manufactured from used parts for each flight. It is dismantled, cleaned, checked, and reassembled, not unlike a used IBM selectric. No wonder it takes so long. It takes Boeing on the order of a month to take an airplane through final assembly. When you consider that the Shuttle has to be disassembled before it can be reassembled, then a three month cycle between launches isn't that bad. Dani Eder/Space Station Program