[sci.space.shuttle] Turnaround time on a shuttle

tmack@cbnewsd.att.com (thomas.p.mack) (12/07/90)

There seems to be fairly long periods of time between when a shuttle lands and
it is ready for flight again.  I would assume that there is some amount
of free or contingency time in that schedule.  

Question: In a pinch, how fast could NASA perform the turnaround function
	  on a shuttle?  In other words, once a shuttle lands, how soon
	  could it be ready to fly again (not including payload processing)?

	  Also, on average, how far away from this optimal turnaround
	  time for shuttle processing is NASA?

Tom Mack
att!ihlpa!tmack

petej@phred.UUCP (Pete Jarvis) (12/10/90)

In article <1990Dec6.160149.2884@cbnewsd.att.com> tmack@cbnewsd.att.com (thomas.p.mack) writes:
>
>Question: In a pinch, how fast could NASA perform the turnaround function
>	  on a shuttle?  In other words, once a shuttle lands, how soon
>	  could it be ready to fly again (not including payload processing)?
>

Depends on what type of mission the Shuttle is to be set up for. You can
save 2-3 days by landing it at KSC though.

Peter Jarvis...........