re hst servicing mission scheduled for days in article apr mksol dseg ti com mccall mksol dseg ti com fred j mccall writes in apr lambda msfc nasa gov bday lambda msfc nasa gov brian day writes rdouglas stsci edu rob douglas writes but try to land a shuttle with that big huge telescope in the back and you could have problems the shuttle just isn t designed to land with that much weight in the payload is hst really that much heavier than a spacelab i can t speak to sheer mass but part of the problem is that hst wasn t built to ever be brought back down it s not built for those kinds of jolt forces and there is no support cradle for it which is additional weight that would be required just to throw it out there the mass of the telescope is kg lb i do not know what space lab weighs but i believe it is less can anyone verify also remember that weight was not the only concern as many others have noted just one possible concern i was responding to a statement that if you can boost it why can t you land it those are too different problems rob rob douglas space san martin drive ai software engineer telescope baltimore md usa advance planning systems branch science phone internet rdouglas stsci edu institute fax disclaimer type thingie these opinions are mine unless of course they fall under the standard intellectual property guidelines but with my intellect i doubt it besides if it was useful intellectual property do you think i would type it in here rob douglas space san martin drive ai software engineer telescope baltimore md usa advance planning systems branch science phone
