posted 09-12-2003 06:23 PM            

If NASA man-rates both the Delta 4 and Atlas 5 they could really move alot of people around in space, but the lead time for one of those boosters is about 18 months, I believe.

posted 09-12-2003 09:54 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Gordon Reade:
Back during the ASTP when the Americans told the Russians that the flight would be the last use of the Apollo spacecraft the Russians would not believe them. They said, "You built it and it works really well. You can't expect us to believe that you're not going to continue flying it."

I know that this is a true story.

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Gordon,
I know the following is true since I was there as the Lead EECOM Flight Controller on ASTP. Here is an excerpt from my autobiography:"We had splashed down and the Russians had thumped down; the ”locals” gathered at the JSC Gilruth Recreation Center for a post-flight cocktail party. I stood in a circle of a mixture of Americans and Russians making small talk. One of the Russian engineers asked me what we were going to do next. I replied, “We are going to weld the factory doors shut, disperse the engineering team, and start all over in five years with the Shuttle”, which has since bee characterized as an Apollo-era obituary. He declared us crazy, since they planned to launch six more times before year’s end. I acknowledged the correctness of his observation, replying that it was simply how we did things in the U.S. The Russians pragmatically are still launching the same booster designs while we continue to pursue new, highly technical and increasingly expensive rocket designs."
Best,
Sy Liebergot