dietz@SLB-DOLL.CSNET (Paul Dietz) (03/19/86)
I read in Aviation Week that the new filament wound SRB's for Vandenburg launches may never fly because of reliability concerns. This may make the shuttles unable to launch large spy satellites into polar orbits. One possible fix the article mentioned was to make the shuttle fly right-side-up for the first part of the flight; this is supposed to add 4000 pounds of payload capacity to polar orbit, but would require slightly more SRB thrust in the very beginning of the flight.