From: christopher.m.jones@gmail.com   
      
   Rodney Kelp wrote:   
   > Why can't you launch a fuel tank into orbit with solid fuel boosters that   
   > the shuttle or other transport could dock with? What about to moon orbit?.   
   > If you can, why don't they do it to use the shuttle engines to slow the   
   > craft down before entering the atmosphere to avoid the inferno of reentry   
   > and all that fireproofing tile work.   
      
   This has been addresses many, many times.  Think about it   
   for a while.  It takes a lot of rocket fuel to get something   
   as large as the Shuttle into orbit.  It will take the same   
   amount to slow it down enough to allow for a mild heat   
   environment during reentry.  Logically, the ratio of the   
   mass of fuel used to launch the Shuttle to the mass of the   
   orbiter will be the same as the ratio of the mass of fuel   
   needed to launch a fueled, safe-reenty Shuttle stack would be   
   to the mass of that fueled Shuttle stack.  This ratio is   
   about 7 to 1, meaning that with the resources we use   
   currently we could launch perhaps one Shuttle per year, maybe   
   less.  This is not including the incredible difficulties of   
   building a new vehicle that could do all this, which is not   
   easy.  The amount of fuel needed on orbit for this task is so   
   large that its mass is several times greater than the largest   
   objects ever launched on a single rocket.   
      
   Meanwhile, despite accidents and mishaps, aerodynmic   
   reentry has a very strong safety and reliability record.   
   Heat shields have shown that when properly cared for they   
   can be relied upon.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)