Quote:
Originally Posted by LewisM
.....the STS launch system was fatally flawed and fragile.
The Soviets figured out quickly the false economics of the Shuttle
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By failing to deliver a single payload or crew to orbit prior to its destruction and subsequent program cancellation, this tertiary qualified aviator with 4 decades heavy jet of experience still thinks thinks Buran was rubbish even if I am sitting in an armchair as I write, but, if you can point to a Buran orbital payload milestone I'll be happy to revise that opinion
The Shuttle was hardly fragile.
The issue was how to repeatedly handle the enormous energies the airframe had to withstand on launch and re-entry. Top of descent in an A380 typically starts at 140 odd nautical miles out at Mach .84. For a touchdown in Florida, the Shuttle starts TOD over the sea of Japan at about 300,000 feet doing Mach 16....absolutely friggin' awesome stuff IMHO....and they did it 135 times over a 30 year program. Sadly there were two airframe losses...which had nothing to do with fragility.
Costly? Sure. But we would not have the Hubble without it.
But Fragile? Who is being the armchair expert now?
