Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Horizontal shuttle take-off
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.180640.2723@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <6432@fs3.cam.nist.gov>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 91 18:06:40 GMT

In article <6432@fs3.cam.nist.gov> crosson@cam.nist.gov (Bob Crosson) writes:
>Just a random thought; could the shuttle, minus the SRBs, take-off
>from a runway given enough fuel for the SSMEs? ...

Unless I'm greatly mistaken, the orbiter's wings have neither the lift nor
the structural strength to carry a loaded external tank.

I would also suspect -- although I'd have to push numbers around to be sure
of this -- that three SSMEs do not have enough thrust to get such a beast
into orbit before running out of fuel.

It's also not clear to me why horizontal takeoff is a useful thing to do.
There is actually an awful lot to be said for doing both takeoffs and
landings vertically, a la SSX.
-- 
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry
