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- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!olivea!charnel!sifon!cerberus.ulaval.ca!yergeau
- From: yergeau@phy.ulaval.ca (Francois Yergeau)
- Newsgroups: sci.space
- Subject: Re: Shuttle a research tool (was: Re: Let's be more specific)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan7.033118.1652@cerberus.ulaval.ca>
- Date: 7 Jan 93 03:31:18 GMT
- References: <ewright.726254273@convex.convex.com> <1993Jan5.211253.20530@cerberus.ulaval.ca> <ewright.726345157@convex.convex.com>
- Sender: news@cerberus.ulaval.ca
- Organization: Universite Laval, Quebec
- Lines: 52
- Nntp-Posting-Host: 132.203.76.4
-
- In article <ewright.726345157@convex.convex.com> ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) writes:
- >In <1993Jan5.211253.20530@cerberus.ulaval.ca> yergeau@phy.ulaval.ca (Francois Yergeau) writes:
- >>It is my understanding that since the post-Challenger return to flight,
- >>NASA has been forbidden to fly commercial stuff on the shuttle. Am I
- >>wrong?
- >
- >Yes, those restrictions have been relaxed, though not removed
- >entirely. Remember the Intelsat salvage mission?
-
- Subject beaten to death last year, no further comment. :)
-
- >>Is NASA doing that? On any scale bigger than small, occasional excess
- >>capacity? If so, I agree it's playing games with its charter.
- >
- >It's certainly tried. The original plan for the TDRS system
- >called for at least one on-orbit spare, which would be leased
- >to a private company for commercial service until/unless NASA
- >needed it. This never happened because NASA had trouble just
- >launching enough TDRS satellites for a minimal constellation.
-
- If all goes well next week, they'll have excess capacity aplenty.
- Given the current state of the comsat industry, putting that excess
- capacity on the commercial market could very well be called unfair
- competition. Stay tuned.
-
- >>As for NASA hiring its own flight crew, constructing its own
- >>communications facilities and in general operating the shuttle system
- >>on its own instead of contracting out the whole works, I don't see any
- >>inherent problem with that. Just like I don't hire Tektronix to
- >>operate my oscilloscope in the lab.
- >
- >There is some difference between operating an oscilloscope
- >and operating an airline. At least six orders of magnitude
- >worth.
-
- But the airlines do not contract out their operations. They procure
- planes, and fly them, just like NASA buys shuttles and operates them.
- It's certainly proper, legal, and it's not clear to me that doing
- otherwise would be beneficial.
-
- > And I don't think you actively try to put other people
- >out of the oscilloscope business, do you?
-
- No, my allocation of taxpayer's money is way too small. :-)
-
-
-
- --
- Francois Yergeau (yergeau@phy.ulaval.ca) | De gustibus et coloribus
- Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser | non disputandum
- Departement de Physique | -proverbe scolastique
- Universite Laval, Ste-Foy, QC, Canada |
-