Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?

From: Jeff Findley (jeff.findley_at_ugs.nojunk.com)
Date: 03/19/05 

Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 13:26:39 -0500

"JATO @jatobservatory.org>" <jato<No-Canned-Ham> wrote in message
news:0bom315s860ongaq77i1c1me7kf259hhpd@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:31:15 -0500, "Jeff Findley"
> <jeff.findley@ugs.nojunk.com> wrote:
> >I'd like nothing more than to see the VAB and the shuttle pads turned
into a
> >museum. Where better to display a shuttle stack than on a crawler in the
> >VAB? You could turn the desserted office space in the VAB into
restaraunts
> >and gift shops.
> >
>
> What do you have against VAB? While Slick-6 will never be used for shuttle
> flights, the base is still a good DoD launching asset. Use of VAB frees up
> pads at the Eastern Test Range to launch commercial spacecraft. If VAB was
> closed the DoD would start bumping commercial flights from Florida.

I'm not talking about VAFB (Vandenberg Air Force Base).

I'm talking about the VAB (Vertical Assmbly Building) at KSC (Kennedy Space
Center). You know, that huge monstosity of a building that's mostly empty
space since the SRB's (and hypergolics?) forced the evacuation of office
space. Also, it's oversized for what I consider to be a reasonably sized
launch vehicle. Using it (and the rest of the shuttle infrastructure)
almost certainly gaurentees that launch costs will be high due to the high
cost of the ground infrastructure.

In the future, I think it would make the perfect space shuttle museum.
You'd park the crawlers in there with one holding a launch platform with an
(intert) shuttle stack on top. Out at one of the pads, you'd stick another
launch platform, possibly holding a mock-up of the shuttle (so the salt air
doesn't destroy the real one). Perhaps the one at the visitor's center at
KSC could be used for this purpose.

Jeff 

-- 
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Processing time, Soyuz, Shuttle and CEV
    ... > Shuttle spends time in the OPF getting ready/maintained. ... > orbiter on pad while one in VAB and one entering OPF). ... > it seems rather onerous and time consuming at the real life launch rates. ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Delta 4: heavier and bigger
    ... >>There are also several other problems with Shuttle C's. ... > The oldest facility relevant to this discussion is the VAB, ... > going to need reroofing whether we go with an SDV or not. ... Reconfigure a High Bay or 2 in the VAB and build a new Mobile ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... >>I'd like nothing more than to see the VAB and the shuttle pads turned ... Where better to display a shuttle stack than on a crawler in the ... > pads at the Eastern Test Range to launch commercial spacecraft. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Am I imagining this?
    ... And some point they pass each other along the crawler way. ... diverge to the two pads, as the other parts are only wide enough for one ... Right outside the VAB, before the crawlerway from the two High Bays ... launch facing a short October launch window. ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... Not only is it time for NASA to retire the shuttle, ... >make sure they don't get to design the next generation launch vehicle. ... >development costs may be lower than clean sheet designs, ... >VAB? ...
    (sci.astro)