Flight Rates

> NASA's early arguments that the Shuttle would reduce launch costs were predicated on a much greaterlaunch ratethan was ever achieved in reality. A bit more on that: I think all of us here think highly of the High Frontier studies done by O'Neill and others back in the 70's. But one cringe-inducing aspect of it istoday reading thecalculation that High Frontier could be supported byone Shuttle launch a month, which was a good thing because that meant only one Shuttle orbiter out of the fleet would need to be dedicated to the task, leaving the other orbiters free for other purposes. Obviously the assumption underlying that assertion was a Shuttle thundering up out of Kennedy every week. Lest we castigate O'Neill for such a grandiose notion, he was simply taking NASA at its word. That might seem naive in hindsight, but we should remember that at that time NASA was known chiefly for one thing: saying they would land a man on the moon before the 60's were out, and then making good on the promise.