Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: bring it home

Westar 6 and Palapa B2

After returning those 2 satellites, they lost a lot of their value; the insurance companies payed much more than what it was worth.
And they were sent back to space...I think a chinese rocket launched at least one of them.
STS 51A was an exceptionnal flight...the last time they used the MMUs and the last time they returned commercial satellites to be relaunched (the next ones were repaired in space).
But that also showed some of the weaknesses of the shuttle:

The RMS was a much better concept than the MMU.

The shuttle delivering satellites doesn't mean they will work (if they can only be armed once they leave the shuttle!).

It would have been much less expensive to build new satellites and launch them with an ELV, than to use a shuttle.

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