johnson@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM (Wayne D. T. Johnson) (10/05/88)
My Brother-in-law works for a large aerospace contractor in Tulsa, he told me last night that he had visited the shop in their plant where they were constructing a new set of shuttle cargo bay doors. For the challenger replacement. He also told me that they had already shipped the first pair and that they had been damaged while unloading in Florida, so now they are makeing 1.5 sets (a spare just in case). Are there 2 new shuttles, the challenger replacement AND a shuttle-C (as yet under planning, as Henry suggests). This also leads me to the question, if the doors are fairly fragile, could one be damaged by banging a recovered satalite or shuttle-C engine pod? And what would be the concequense? -- Wayne Johnson (Voice) 612-638-7665 NCR Comten, Inc. (E-MAIL) W.Johnson@StPaul.NCR.COM or Roseville MN 55113 johnson@c10sd1.StPaul.NCR.COM These opinions (or spelling) do not necessarily reflect those of NCR Comten.
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (10/06/88)
In article <813@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM> johnson@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM (Wayne D. T. Johnson) writes: >Are there 2 new shuttles, the challenger replacement AND a shuttle-C (as yet >under planning, as Henry suggests). There is no commitment to anything but the Challenger replacement and (I think) a new set of "structural spares"; I'm not sure whether the latter includes the doors. Shuttle-C would not use an orbiter fuselage at all and hence wouldn't have payload-bay doors. Various people, notably NRC, have pointed out that another accident is a distinct possibility and it would be a mistake to shut the production line down, but not much has been done about this yet. >This also leads me to the question, if the doors are fairly fragile, could >one be damaged by banging a recovered satalite or shuttle-C engine pod? And >what would be the concequense? It's a risk. They try to be careful about such things. Provided it didn't make too big a hole, the consequences might not be anything very drastic; the doors are, after all, in a relatively low-temperature area on reentry. Major maintenance might be needed afterward. -- The meek can have the Earth; | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology the rest of us have other plans.|uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu