🚀 go-pugleaf

 
     Henry, you mention that assembly of a booster and satellite
   in space is "tood difficult" by someone's standards. One
   possible reason you give is that having the booster sitting
   around in space for a few weeks at a time may not be a good
   idea.
      Well, how about launching the booster after the satellite is
   in orbit? Wasn't Agena-Gemina done this way?
 
      Someone mentioned developing a OMV. Check out the October
   issue of Final Frontier from last year. They have an article
   called"The Remarkable Flying Pancake"   This discusses the OMV.
   They show a full-scale mock-up of the OMV. It is being built
   by TRW. It is 15' in diameter and 5' thick. From another source
   I have heard it mentioned it will use for throttable engines based
   on the LEM engine. The article is interesting. The author tried
   out the simulator. He discusses two problems he encountered.
   First, there is a 3 second (more when switching between TDRSS)
   delay in operation. This means after you make a move, you have 
   to wait at least 3 seconds for feedback before you can make your
   next move. The second problem is that when he tried a sim-dock
   with the HST, over time, the pitch between the OMV and the HST
   changed due to gravitional tides in the HST. Some simulator!
 
     BTW, I just heard Sam Donaldson on The Letterman Show. 
   He was talking about "High Flight". He mis-attributed the lines
   tha Reagan spoke to Reagan's SPEECHWRITE!!!!!
 
     Finally, while I think Henry is right about close launches,
   with the extended missions for Columbia, I wonder if two flights
   will ever end up overlapping! That could be interesting.
 
      BTW, does anyone have any idea what the maximum number of
   people who have been in space at one time is? I think it was 9.
   Two cosmonauts and 7 shuttle astronauts, but I am not sure, and
   if so when it would have been.
 
   Greg_d._Moore@mts.rpi.edu