thomasantony
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Theoretically, how much would it cost to rebuild the Saturn V?
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Thomas
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Thomas
Theoretically, how much would it cost to rebuild the Saturn V?
"America's Concorde" is what I call it, except it's less reliable and more risky.
I don't know what would have been done to save the crew had the damage been verified, but a normal reentry and landing would not have topped the list of things to do.
Atlantis was an option. She was in the VAB at the time of the Columbia accident just 2 days away from rolling out to 39A. Expedited processing could have been implemented and she would have been ready to launch by Febraury 10.Even a rescue mission with Soyuz capsule would have taken a longer preparation than just the 15 days available. The only option would have been a RTLS abort - this would have had less thermal stresses. But who would have had the balls to say "uuuh, I think we should make a RTLS abort, it looks like foam hit Columbia and I can't exclude major damage". Flight rules did not allow this option.
Atlantis was an option. She was in the VAB at the time of the Columbia accident just 2 days away from rolling out to 39A. Expedited processing could have been implemented and she would have been ready to launch by Febraury 10.
By powering down Columbia she could have lasted until about FD30 which was February 16. Main concern was CO2 generated by the crew.
An expedited rendezvous by Atlantis was possible and loading aboard new LiOH canisters for Columbia would have eased the CO2 concerns greatly.
Atlantis nominal launch date for STS-114/ULF1 was March 11. That date included about 7 days of contigency time to handle any problems at the pad.