posted
The budget for the NG shuttlecraft is based on politics and social events. We don't know what will happen in the next 10 years. There could be major changes which could benefit or hinder the development of the prototype vehicle.
I have heard talk from NASA that the Enterprise-type orbiter will be on active duty for the next 20 years.
Registered: Sep 1999
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Saiyanman Benjita
...in 2012. This time, why not the worst?
Member # 122
posted
So what is done with the old ones? Commercial liners?
-------------------- You've got to be kidding! I'm wet, I'm naked, your sister is wearing my clothes And this is all part of some evil plot to rule the world as a soggy chimp in my BIRTHDAY SUIT???!!!
Registered: Apr 1999
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Alpha Centauri
Usually seen somewhere in the Southern skies
Member # 338
posted
From what I know, Space Shuttle Mark I is planned to remain in active NASA service beyond 2010. I wouldn't exclude the possibility that NASA will put the oldies in sale when they have made obsolete by the Mark II. A future may be ahead for commercial spaceflight using Mark I orbiters, although I doubt that any company can afford it to maintain regular tourists flights, say, once a month. A typical NASA mission using one orbiter typically costs about $150-350 million. Not to mention the costs to purchase even a single orbiter (the building costs were about $1.2 billion each).
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Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
And you'd have to buy pretty much the entire Cape, too. The shuttle is just a tiny little part of the Space Transportation System, most of which is ground-based.
You'd need at least
a) the Cape launch pad, or preferably two, plus timeslots for the flights from those pads b) all the pre- and postflight prep facilities c) the fuel support infrastructure d) at least part of the launch control facilities (although these are probably the ones you can most easily and inexpensively replace with up-to-date tech of your own) e) the industries that produce the SRBs and the ETs f) the recovery infrastructure for the SRBs g) time on the Cape landing strip, or else a suitable transportation system for the Orbiter (one of the B747s, a more modern carrier aircraft, or a road- or railroad-based alternative).
It ain't gonna be worth it. The only justification for buying the STS would be if you needed to put both men AND outsize cargo into space at the same time, and I can't see any commercial requirement of that nature in the near future.
posted
Besides, the Enterprise-type orbiters would be obsolete in technology by then. This point is conceded by NASA which says the shuttles are based on 70's technology.
Registered: Sep 1999
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