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