🚀 go-pugleaf

>A few years ago I saw some figures on the amount of overtime needed to
>process a Shuttle. It was horendous. Adding more Shuttles will just tax
>the groundcrew even more. Adding staff to eliminate this bottleneck will
>only increase costs.

 Maybe so, but I don't see the reasoning that NASA can launch monthly
 (assuming they manage it) from December 1992 to April 1993 (five
 launches of three orbiters) but can't keep up that pace throughout
 the year. Does this mean they're pushing hard to get five flights
 off early and then stopping to do alot of postponed maintenance? This
 doesn't seem likely to me. So WHAT IS the reason for the sparse flight
 rate in the second half of 1993? Politics. 

>Your assuming that orbiter availability is the only bottleneck.
>I'm sure they could add one or two flights a year. But so what? all that
>means is that instead of spending three times what we need we are 'only'
>spending 2.75 times what we need to. I don't consider that much of a
>victory.

 But you digress. This was not a question of costs but one of performance.
 I doubt anyone at the DC program would be happy knowing that DC-1 was
 flying two or three missions per year less than it was able to. The same
 can be said for Titan, Atlas, Delta, or Ariane. So again you seem to have
 two sets of measuring systems: One for the Shuttle and another for
 everything else.
  
>>   This is all
>>   moot, since NASA apparently does not want to push its luck prior
>>   to SSF assembly, but it does show that the launch rate is lower
>>   than it could be.
>
>No because those are factors. The bottom line is that NASA cannot fly
>many more missions per year than they are now.

    That's not what you said earlier, Allen. Even you acknowledge one or
    two more flights per year is possible (I say three of four BTW). With
    the current 8 per year, that's a 25% increase. The folks at Titan or
    Atlas would LOVE that.
    
    -Brian

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Brian S. Thorn                                    "If ignorance is bliss,
BrianT@cup.portal.com                               this must be heaven."
                                                -Diane Chambers, "Cheers"
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