Location
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Columbia/Enterprise Rooms
Start Date
22-4-1992 2:00 PM
Description
Achieving low cost, reliable space transportation is one of the most important space policy challenges facing the United States today. Since launch and mission operations are responsible for up to 45 % of the costs of each launch, lowering these costs is critical to reducing overall costs associated with space flight.
To reduce these costs significantly, an innovative alternative approach to vehicle element processing was developed. This concept was born from the fact that present day launch processing system (LPS) is undergoing a major upgrade to implement today's technology. Carrying this one step further, the same upgrade could be implemented at various vehicle element manufacturing sites. This would allow expendable vehicle standalone processing to be accomplished offsite without compromising the integrity of the vehicle thus eliminating horizontal checkout at the launch site. This paper will address vehicle test requirements, timelines and ground checkout concepts to implement this approach.
Paper Session II-B - Integrated Factory/Launch Site Processing Concept
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Columbia/Enterprise Rooms
Achieving low cost, reliable space transportation is one of the most important space policy challenges facing the United States today. Since launch and mission operations are responsible for up to 45 % of the costs of each launch, lowering these costs is critical to reducing overall costs associated with space flight.
To reduce these costs significantly, an innovative alternative approach to vehicle element processing was developed. This concept was born from the fact that present day launch processing system (LPS) is undergoing a major upgrade to implement today's technology. Carrying this one step further, the same upgrade could be implemented at various vehicle element manufacturing sites. This would allow expendable vehicle standalone processing to be accomplished offsite without compromising the integrity of the vehicle thus eliminating horizontal checkout at the launch site. This paper will address vehicle test requirements, timelines and ground checkout concepts to implement this approach.
