🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan7.195658.8028@cerberus.ulaval.ca> yergeau@phy.ulaval.ca (Francois Yergeau) writes:

>NASA could consider leasing shuttle services if a provider were available;  

Providers are available. NASA has turned them down.

>but there's none, and with orbiters at $1.5 billion a pop,
>plus gigadollar infrastructure, 

1. Don't compare govenrment costs with private ones. The private ones
   will be far lower.
2. Getting money isn't a problem if the market is there.

>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.  

They sell the services to NASA. So what?

>A would-be shuttle service provider would want
>a multi-year commitment for a fairly large number of launches before
>investing, 

Like what DoD did with Titan IV or NASA did to build Shuttle in the
first place. Not a problem, it happens all the time.

>today is that either i) NASA flies the shuttles, or ii) they stay on
>the ground.

Since NASA has explicitly refused to even think about proposals, this
statement cannot be considered accurate.

   Allen

-- 
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  aws@iti.org     |  nothing undone"                                       |
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