Orbital transfer vehicle launch operations study. Volume 1: Executive summary

摘要

The purpose was to use the operational experience at the launch site to identify, describe and quantify the operational impacts of the various configurations on the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and/or space station launch sites. Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) configurations are being developed/defined by contractor teams. Lacking an approved configuration, the KSC Study Team defined a Reference Configuration to be used for this study. This configuration then become the baseline for the identification of the facilities, personnel and crew skills required for processing the OTV in a realistic manner that would help NASA achieve the lowest possible OTV life cycle costs. As the study progressed, researchers' initial apraisal that the vehicle, when delivered, would be a sophisticated, state-of-the-art vehicle was reinforced. It would be recovered and reused many times so the primary savings to be gained would be in the recurring-cycle of the vehicle operations--even to the point where it would be beneficial to break from tradition and make a significant expenditure in the development of processing facilities at the beginning of the program.