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Brian Gaff - 28 Aug 2006 20:39 GMT

I'm beginning to wonder how anything gets launched in Florida, considering
the unpredictability of the weather.

Can anyone explain the reason why they cannot have both a Soyuz and a
Shuttle at the station at the same time? Is it purely that there would be
too much going on at once, or is there a technical reason. Also, if the crew
rotation occurs, do the new crew know what help the 115 crew would expect
from them for the mission?

Would it not, maybe, be better to shelve the crew rotation for a month or
so, in the hope that the shuttle can get the job done before the rotation?

Brian

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Brian Gaff - briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
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Danny Dot - 30 Aug 2006 21:25 GMT

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Danny Dot
Look at my site and see how NASA treats a creative mind!!!
The summary is "Not Very Well" :-)
www.mobbinggonemad.org

> I'm beginning to wonder how anything gets launched in Florida, considering
> the unpredictability of the weather.
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> Brian

Weather for a winged vehicle with a Return To Launch Site (RTLS) abort is a
problem. The shuttle needs (I think) 8,000 ceiling and 5 miles of
visibility to launch to protect for the event it needs to come back to
Kennedy for a early failure of one of its engines. It also needs the same
weather at one of its Trans Atlantic Abort sites to be the same.

It also has the problem of fragile, exposed thermal protection for hail and
rain while on the pad. This is a reason to go back to capsules (which NASA
is with Orion). The weather requirements to do an abort are MUCH more
generous for a capsule and the capsule on the top has no fragile thermal
protection exposed to the weather. I worked with the Russians in 1993 to
use the Soyuz as an escape vehicle from (at that time) a US/Europe/Japanese
station. They bragged many times the Soyuz has never missed a launch for
weather. They have no requirement for ceiling and visibility for launch.
They have NEVER aborted a launch for weather. They have literally launched
in the middle of a blizzard at the launch site. A capsule can abort in the
middle of very bad weather. I winged vehicle that needs to land on a runway
can not.

Danny Dot
www.mobbinggonemad.org

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Space Forum / Shuttle / August 2006

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