/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12173863
Yeah, it's easy to bash it in retrospect but shuttle came closer to working than people give it credit for.

The thinking was that it needed 20-25 launches per year to be cost-effective. From April '85 to January '86 they had 10 launches in 10 months. 1986 was going to be the first full calendar year with all four orbiters, and there were 15 flights planned, including the first shuttle-centaur launches. If you could have kept up 15 flights/year with DOD/commercial launches plus another 5 launches for space station work then you're right on the money.

But then once they lost the DOD and commercial payloads AND centaur it was hopeless. They should have given up on it then and there.

Polar launches from Vandenberg could have made for some nice spacelab missions too, although I don't know if they actually had any planned.