🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C0Hun4.13t@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>Actually, it is not at all uncommon for airlines to lease planes complete
>with crews, 

NASA could consider leasing shuttle services if a provider were
available;  but there's none, and with orbiters at $1.5 billion a pop,
plus gigadollar infrastructure, none is likely to appear out of thin
air.  With shuttle costs at their astronomical levels (even if reduced
30% by private industry's magic wand), NASA would likely be the major,
if not only, customer.  A would-be shuttle service provider would want
a multi-year commitment for a fairly large number of launches before
investing, which Congress will not make easy.  So the basic reality of
today is that either i) NASA flies the shuttles, or ii) they stay on
the ground.

>or to contract with specialists for support services like
>maintenance.

NASA does that too: spent SRBs are send back to Utah for refurbishing;
the orbiters are sent to Palmdale for their mid-life
maintenance/upgrade; and there's probably an impressive number of
Rockwell/Thiokol/you-name-it employees involved directly in shuttle
operations.  But NASA remains the maitre d'oeuvre, probably for the
reasons stated above.

-- 
Francois Yergeau (yergeau@phy.ulaval.ca) |  De gustibus et coloribus
Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser    |  non disputandum
Departement de Physique                  |          -proverbe scolastique
Universite Laval, Ste-Foy, QC, Canada    |