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Re: (meteorobs) Orbital question
>
> Bottom line, though: Would a shuttle mission to HST
> possibly be able to rendezvous with ISS?
>
> regards, Bruce McCurdy, Edmonton
There is no way that the U.S. Space Shuttle or any other manned
spacecraft flown by another country into a 28-degree orbit has had or
will have sufficient fuel to radically change its orbit to match the
ISS. I've 20+ years experience on several NASA satellites, and have
found even a small, several-degree inclination change requires HUGE
amounts of fuel compared to more normal, in-orbit stationkeeping.
So, if future STS flights visit Hubble and experience similar
problems to Columbia, my opinion is there are only two options: (1)
strand the astronauts in orbit until there is no longer any way to
support them (which I think is a long, drawn-out, painfully public
way to go) or (2) chance a re-entry with the hope that things are
not as bad as thought (which translates into a significantly quicker
way to be wrong).
Even if a problem with Columbia were apparent prior to re-entry, the
above two choices still sum up all the options I'm aware of.
My heart goes out to the astronaut families and friends, and it is
not my intention to be making light of the Columbia experience.
Steve Walter
Glenn Dale, Maryland
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