gandalf@pro-canaveral.cts.com (Ken Hollis) (12/10/90)
Greetings and Salutations >From tmack@cbnewsd.att.com (thomas.p.mack) >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 There is usually very little contingency time built into any normal turn around schedule, and that is usually used up somewhere along the line. Each vehicle is usually launched as soon as it can be. To say that the schedule is planned a little tight is being kind. The original Rockwell specs said two weeks for turnaround. Basically it can't be done that fast. Under todays operating conditions, Assuming the best, i.e. it lands at KSC, and is towed into the OPF (Orbiter Processing Facility) as quickly as possible, and all involved know that this shuttle is to be turned around as soon as possible, it might get out of the OPF in two weeks or so... (heavy emphasis on the "or so..."). This is also assuming that all routine maintenance is waived, that there are three engines ready to put on after the three engines used for that flight are removed, that all personnel are put on the task of readying one vehicle and the other vehicles are ignored, and that all equipment onboard is working correctly (i.e., no malfunctions). We are also talking 7 days a week, 12 hour days for quite a few people. >From the OPF, it would probably take another two weeks or so (once again, heavy emphasis on the or so...") to get it to the VAB, stacked and out to the Pad, and get it ready for launch. This might allow time for the payload installation (you didn't mention why it was being turned around so fast). As I mentioned, this would mean putting a lot of routine maintenance requirements off until next flight. Robbing Peter to pay Paul as it were. This is also a best guestimate. Probably all in all about 5 - 6 weeks. The "best" turn around time I see (and this is a quick look, not adding up every day) looks like between missions 41-B (landing 02/11/84) & 41-C (launch 04/06/84) of Challenger. Ken ProLine: gandalf@pro-canaveral Internet: gandalf@pro-canaveral.cts.com UUCP: crash!pro-canaveral!gandalf