[net.space] shuttle tanks

crm@duke.UUCP (10/05/83)

Oddly enough, it would INCREASE the available payload of the shuttle to
leave the disposable tanks in orbit, because the Shuttle must manuever
to get rid of the things before it is in orbit, and because the last little
bits of fuel could be consumed.

DON'T ask me for the math on this -- this is all argument-from-authority
from David Brin at San Diego -- who has, by the way, written a couple of
good SF novels recently.  Brin is a professor of Physics at at (I think)
UC San Diego.