Space Forum / Shuttle / September 2005

Debbie Rivera/Fred Brown
Headquarters, Washington                        September 14, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-1743/0713)
RELEASE: 05-264

So who is going to be the first to use a Falcon 9, in conjunction with
apollo (or soyuz!) capsule, to get space tourism off the ground?
Costs are approx 30M per flight, for 9.5 tonnes (21000lbs)
The heavy can get 25 tonnes (55000lbs) into leo for ~40M ?

The idea is to throw an anchor at the moon, attached to a very long rope.
This way, we can travel into orbit without wasting fuel and go back to Earth
after the work is finished.
Good idea, isn't it?

Doing my assigned week end reading, found this paper pretty interesting.
-- rk
"Single Event Upsets for Space Shuttle Flights of New General Purpose Computer
Memory Devices"

The Michoud Assembly Facility is an 832 acre (3.4 km²) site owned by NASA
and
located in New Orleans East, Louisiana
Was the ET manufacturer damaged in Louisiana?

DISCOVERY ASTRONAUTS TO PROVIDE PERSONAL VIEW OF FLIGHT
September 1, 2005
James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston

Has anybody seen any overnight weather satellite pics
of the Louisiana-Mississippi area blacked out?

How hard would it be to launch the remaining ISS modules on a NEW
shuttle derived heavy lift vehicle? It would appear weight wouldnt be a
issue:)
Build adapter frame to hold modules in a larger vehicle?

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington                           Sept. 9, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-4769)
Doug Peterson

I don't see why Griffin is so stern on retiring the shuttle by the end of
2010. If the space station is not complete by then, then just delay the
retirement. Even Congress passed a resolution (or whatever it's called) to
loosen the retirement date if necessary. I know they want ...

I think they need to get rid of NASA as a governmental entity. It has no
useful purpose for the vast majority of US citizens yet they are expected to
fund NASA's pet projects. There needs to be a Constitutional amendment as to
what can be installed as a governmental entity. Really ...

Which sites would have been used for pre-orbital-insertion aborts had
the Shuttle ever flown from Vandenberg Air Force Base?  Probably
somewhere in Alaska, but where?  Anywhere in Canada?

Energy cant be destroyed right?  So, how do things in a vacuum cool down?  
Where does the heat energy go?

I've given a little bit of thought to SRB costs for a presumed shuttle
derived vehicle (SDV). Given the contract info I found (Google is great), it
seems that costs per engine (fabrication, processing, refurbishing) amount
to about $40 million per engine. Also, what I've found seems ...

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-05zzzzzzt.html
Possible September Surprise For China's Second Manned Launch
File image of a Shenzhou vehicle during in final assembly and testing.
by Morris Jones