🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep25.144349.3511@titan.ksc.nasa.gov> hollis@titan.ksc.nasa.gov (Ken Hollis) writes:
>          [...]   An old Mac Portable did fly on a previous flight.  There are
>rumours that another payload had to be left behind to allow for the weight of
>the Mac Portable and battery... ;-)

Ken's rumor is true, but false.  There are always other things we'd
like to fly, but the Flight Integration Managers can't always find the
stowage space and other consumable commodities (launch mass, power,
crew time, cooling, etc.) to fit them all in.

Usually, when there's a middeck payload that gets bumped by another
middeck payload, the problem is stowage space, locker weight limits, or
center-of-gravity (CG) constraints, not "to allow for the weight"
of the payloads.

As in any aircraft, the CG affects the stability of the vehicle in
aerodynamic (gliding) flight.  In the Shuttle, the CG must be within
a very narrow band (a couple of inches) for the flight software to
work properly.  This drives us to fly ballast on almost every flight.

-- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
      kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov  (713) 483-4368

     "NASA turns dreams into realities and makes science fiction
      into fact" -- Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator