CNN reports:
"Certainly we have considerable amount of experience flying with capsules,"
Dr. John Rogacki, director of NASA's space transportation directorate, told
Reuters on Wednesday. "One might say on the capsule side it could be that
that design experience may lead to a capsule being available sooner than a
winged vehicle."
As far as I can tell we did a lot more Shuttle flights than capsule flights,
no? There's also no mention of reusability of these new capsules. It's
rather interesting that reusable capsules could look quite a bit like some
current X-Prize contenders. Weren't reusable or field replaceable
heatshields discussed on this list a few months ago?
My gut tells me that it would be easier to design a reusable capsule than a
reusable space plane. I could be wrong there of course, not having any
experience in the matter. They'd have to forget about bringing satellites
back to earth I'd say but I don't think we've done that too often anyway.
You could still stick the capsule on top of a disposable module that
contains payload. Rather wasteful. They'd need a different (telescopic)
robotic arm so that's good news for Canada :-) Mostly payloads will be shot
into orbit on disposable rockets I suppose. I wonder why any satellites were
deployed by the shuttle at all? The cost per Lb must have been higher than
using a standard rocket, no?
Sander
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Clawson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 11:24 AM
Subject: [ERPS] Return of the space capsule [slightly OT]
> Has anyone heard the news about some Columbia accident
> board members suggesting a return to ELV/space
> capsules for ISS portage? I suppose the cheapest
> thing we could do is buy Soyuz's from the Russians.
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