) (10/15/90)
In article <471@news.nd.edu> steven@dante.helios.nd.edu writes: > ... can be explained due to that 62B was being launched >from Vandenburg and 61I from Kennedy. What ever happened to the launch pad at Vandenberg? I seem to remember that one launch was made, then the pad was closed due to design flaws. Is this correct? If so, has the pad been closed permanently, or are there some plans to correct the problem? -- Hank Ptasinski gumby@ucsd.edu Sorry, no cute disclaimer.
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (10/15/90)
In article <13248@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> ee251fas@sdcc15.ucsd.edu (Gumby dammit!!) writes: >What ever happened to the launch pad at Vandenberg? I seem to >remember that one launch was made, then the pad was closed due to >design flaws. Is this correct? If so, has the pad been closed >permanently, or are there some plans to correct the problem? There has never been a shuttle launch from the Vandenberg pad, although they were a few months from one at the time of the Challenger disaster. The pad has one known technical problem, a long exhaust duct in which there might be a dangerous hydrogen buildup in the event of a pad abort. Solutions to that were being thought about. Plans for the pad were put on hold after Challenger. Then the USAF lost interest in the shuttle, and NASA didn't have enough polar-orbit launches to justify the costs of activating it immediately, and the pad was mothballed. The prospects of using it for shuttle launches got progressively more remote, and the idea was de facto abandoned some time ago. Recently it has become more official. The more useful shuttle support equipment from it has been moved to KSC, and there is talk (don't remember the current status) of converting the pad for Titan (reconverting it, actually, since it was originally built for the abortive Titan IIIM). -- "...the i860 is a wonderful source | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology of thesis topics." --Preston Briggs | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
gandalf@pro-canaveral.cts.com (Ken Hollis) (10/16/90)
Greetings and Salutations: >In article <471@news.nd.edu> steven@dante.helios.nd.edu writes: >> ... can be explained due to that 62B was being launched >>from Vandenburg and 61I from Kennedy. > >What ever happened to the launch pad at Vandenberg? I seem to >remember that one launch was made, then the pad was closed due to >design flaws. Is this correct? If so, has the pad been closed >permanently, or are there some plans to correct the problem? > >-- >Hank Ptasinski >gumby@ucsd.edu Vandenburg Air Force Base has never launched a shuttle. The pad was in preps for a shuttle launch, but was mothballed after Challenger. Enterprise was stacked there (for test purposes). If I remember correctly, I heard somewhere, possibly, something about it being converted to a Titan IV launch pad. By the way, I assume that we are conversing about SLC - 6 (Slick Six). Ken Hollis ProLine: gandalf@pro-canaveral Internet: gandalf@pro-canaveral.cts.com UUCP: crash!pro-canaveral!gandalf