khayo@sonia.math.ucla.edu (Eric Behr) (05/28/88)
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NASA INVITES EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST FOR USE OF EXTERNAL TANKS
May 27, 1988
RELEASE: 88-68
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration today
invited the U.S. private sector to express interest in
commercially using the Space Shuttle's jettisoned external tanks.
An announcement published in today's edition of Commerce
Business Daily asks interested American companies and non-profit
organizations to submit information concerning proposed uses for
the tanks and associated technical and financial information,
within 90 days, to NASA's Office of Commercial Programs,
Washington, D.C.
The notice is the first step towards implementing one of the
specific actions included in the President's recently announced
Space Policy and Commercial Space Initiative. The decision to
make available, for a period of 5 years, the expended external
tanks of the Shuttle fleet for feasible U.S. commercial and non-
profit endeavors is intended to help promote a strong U.S.
commercial presence in space.
NASA is asking interested companies and organizations to
identify their specific proposed use of an initial external tank,
the expected government/private sector market to be served, the
total number of tanks required to meet that market, and
implications to ongoing NASA activities.
Those expressing an interest in use of a tank in orbit must
also provide information concerning the planned approach to on-
orbit safety and the safe disposition of the tank when it
eventually reenters Earth's atmosphere.
Through 1994, approximately 40 external tanks are expected
to be flown in support of the U.S. civil space program. The
exact number of tanks that could be made available to private
ventures will depend on a case-by-case analysis of each Space
Shuttle launch and the proposed use for that particular tank.
NASA is offering to make the tanks available for uses which
can be accommodated under the current flight profile, in which
the tank is jettisoned into a sub-orbital trajectory that
terminates in a safe ocean area. NASA also may, in certain
cases, make the tanks available for use in low-Earth orbit,
provided the user pays the costs associated with orbital
insertion and the eventual safe disposition of the tanks. The
agency has ruled out any plan which calls for external tanks to
be "parked" in orbit for future undefined use.
NASA does not envision granting sole rights of all external
tanks to any single entity and will consider only those
interested parties willing to develop, at their own expense, a
capability to commercially use the external tanks.
While there will be no charge to users for the external tank
itself, all costs which are additional to NASA's basic Space
Transportation System mission costs must be borne by the private
sector user and must be paid in advance of NASA's provision of
services or technical assistance.
These costs will include payments to NASA for unique mission
engineering, planning and safety reviews, special studies and
modifications to the external tank before launch. This also
includes full structural testing and requalification, if
necessary, and on-orbit handling and servicing. A $100,000
deposit will be required before initiating NASA technical and
support services.
The external tank consists of two pressurized propellant
tanks attached by an unpressurized intertank to become one
structure measuring 154.2 feet in length by 27.5 feet in
diameter. In preparation for launch, the upper tank is loaded
with liquid oxygen and the other is filled with liquid hydrogen.
During the Space Shuttle's launch, the two propellants are fed
into the orbiter to fuel the three main engines.
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Eric