In a message dated Wed, 1 Nov 2000 4:11:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, Jonathan T Wojack <tlj18@juno.com> writes: <<I know it can't be cheap to manufacture. But I don't think it has the capability of re-entering without destroying itself, which gives it negative value when unloaded and docked to the ISS. I would think that making a "two-way" Progress supply ship would be cheaper than making dozens of them in the long run. >> The ISS will get a steady diet of Progress dockings and Shuttle visits during the Expedition 1 mission. The Progress also serves as a waste disposal system - just as it was on the Mir. Otherwise OIG would be cataloging number 1,000,000 just from the internal junk generated on 14 years of Mir occupation. The Progress get filed with the junk and then get deorbited into the Pacific. That is part of its mission. The cheapest way to get supplies to the ISS is via an unmanned Progress mission. An unmanned mission allows you to lose the weight and volume warm bodies and of a life-support systems and replace it with needed supplies. Tang gets very expensive if you need a $250 million shuttle mission just to get it to the ISS. This is why a US-Russian team makes sense. The 2 programs are complementary. Cheers, Don Gardner 39.1799 N, 76.8406 W, 100m ASL http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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