🚀 go-pugleaf

>However, if you disagree, please post your own numbers. State the rules
>you want to use and apply to both systems fairly. Then show that Shuttle
>is better.
>
>I await your reply.
>
>  allen

   Now I'm totally confused, Allen. Wasn't this discussion about the
   Shuttle's launch rate? I thought that you previously belittled a
   25% increase in launch rate, to which I took exception. It was this
   dual-scale measuring (one for Shuttle, one for the others) that I
   am complaining about. I'm still waiting for your explanation as to
   why 25% is a good increase for one, but not another.
   
   And by the way, I don't seem to be alone in the opinion that 12 per
   year is a more likely maximum safe launch rate. That's a 50% increase.
   Hopefully, the next few months will prove that they can launch
   monthly if they wanted and politics permitted.
   
   In any case, since Shuttle is the only U.S. system flying that can take
   people to and from space, and is the only system presently capable
   of returning 30,000+ lbs. of cargo, it is very difficult to compare
   Shuttle with the expendables (although I think it compares favorably
   to Titan IV in terms of annual costs versus annual launch rate.) All
   ratings show Shuttle to be the most powerful launch system in the
   free world. Depending upon whom you ask, it's either alot more capable
   than Titan, or just a little.
   
   Only the DC is presently envisioned to have more or less the same
   attributes as Shuttle, and we both know there is no way Shuttle can
   ever compare favorably to a paper launch system. Pegasus was new and
   revolutionary too, and it has spent the past eighteen months sitting
   in an assembly plant. TSS was new and revolutionary, but was brought
   to its knees by a mislocated bolt. Titan IV was a relatively low-level
   expansion of current technology, but was a year late off the pad and
   has flown at a rate one-fourth of the proposed schedule. GD did a
   relatively minor design change on the Centaur to accomodate greater
   payload, and it has since failed in flight twice. Shuttle has had all
   these problems, and more. Gary and I say similar bugs will afflict
   the DC program, but you tell us not to worry and then call us
   pessimists. Hmph.
      
   -Brian
   
   P.S., Sorry about the multiple posts of my previous message in this
   thread. PortalX crapped out on me in the middle of message uploading.
      
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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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