Actually the Gemini was designed to be reused. Read the book "On the Shoulders of Titans". It talks about the history of Gemini and how the system was designed to be very serviceable and reusable. Check it out at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4203/toc.htm.
Other NASA book also at the same web site http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/on-line.html. Of course bigger libraries such as universities have real copys also. The "Gus mobile" is probably my favorite spacecraft. It was very much a pilots machine. - Edward Rupp [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Gentlefolk, > > << NASA's not used to thinking in those terms, but there's no particular > reason why capsules can't be reusable...>> > > NASA isn't the only game in town. > > http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-03r2.html > > the U.S. first reused a space capsule 36 years ago! The capsule > used on Gemini 2, an unmanned 3400-km suborbital test flight in > Jan. 1965, was reused for an 8900-km suborbital flight in Nov. 1966 -- > the only flight ever made in the later-cancelled Manned Orbiting > Laboratory program. > > The Gemini capsule would have been the Earth return vehicle > perched on top of the MOL, and the Air Force wanted to make sure > that the Gemini's heat shield would still function properly with a hatch > cut into it to allow the crew to transfer between the two vehicles. > > The Gemini capsules were not even designed to be reused, but the > decision was made to do so to save costs, and the capsule came > through both flights in perfect shape. > > --Best, Gerald Nordley (Maj, USAF, ret.) > > _______________________________________________ > ERPS-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
