Monday, October 19, 2009

Can't Beat the Spread

The minions met Monday and decided to adjust Atlantis' target launch date to Nov 16 to "optimize" the agency's ability to launch both Ares I-X and Atlantis before the end of the year. The same launch team is supporting both the shuttle and the flight test of the Ares I-X rocket, which is targeted to lift off on Oct. 27.

Hmmmm. The shuttle workforce is still largely intact. Yet we can't process two vehicles ten days apart? How would we ever launch Ares I and Ares V, or even a pair of V's, at the same time?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Minor detail! I am sure with decades of practice they'll be able to mount a successful lunar mission by 2040.

depot

Depot

DEPOT!!

Chinese DEPOT!!

Anonymous said...

Scuse me - do any real, non-biased systems analysis and you will find that depots are about as complicated and expensive as you can get. Other answers smack of the "ESAS was a fix job" touted here so often.

Anonymous said...

Other answers smack of the "ESAS was a fix job" touted here so often.

That's right, if Michael Griffin and John Shannon can pull rockets out of there asses, then anyone should be able to pull a rocket out of their ass. The trick is not to actually spend tens of billions upon tens of billions of taxpayer dollars developing rockets you just pulled out of your ass. That's what separates the men from the boys.

Good luck with your rocket, boy.

Anonymous said...

Please read the actual words - I never said that ESAS was or wasn't a fix job - just that anyone who touts depots as a reasonable thing (especially early on) is not doing their homework and does not understand honest systems analysis.

Anonymous said...

As complicated and expensive as tossing away thousands of satellites and upper stages into Earth orbit and creating an 'incalculably costly' orbital debris problem? I think not.

As a simple exercise to keep your fertile mind busy, compare the costs of prevention to the costs of remediation. Case in point : atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and global warming.