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In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Josh Hopkins) writes: |
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>>>Titan IV launches ain't cheap |
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>>Granted. But that's because titan IV's are bought by the governemnt. Titan |
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>>III is actually the cheapest way to put a pound in space of all US expendable |
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>>launchers. |
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>In that case it's rather ironic that they are doing so poorly on the commercial |
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>market. Is there a single Titan III on order? |
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The problem with Commercial Titan is that MM has made little or no attempt |
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to market it. They're basically happy with their government business and |
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don't want to have to learn how to sell commercially. |
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A secondary problem is that it is a bit big. They'd need to go after |
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multi-satellite launches, a la Ariane, and that complicates the marketing |
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task quite significantly. |
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They also had some problems with launch facilities at just the wrong time |
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to get them started properly. If memory serves, the pad used for the Mars |
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Observer launch had just come out of heavy refurbishment work that had |
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prevented launches from it for a year or so. |
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There have been a few CT launches. Mars Observer was one of them. So |
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was that stranded Intelsat, and at least one of its brothers that reached |
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orbit properly. |
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All work is one man's work. | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology |
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- Kipling | [email protected] utzoo!henry |
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