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Organic Marble
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For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

You can see the storage spheres in this picture. The tall tank nearer to the pad is water for the deluge system.

enter image description here

From here

As far as detanking, the propellants went back to the storage spheres, albeit with some inevitable losses.

We drain back from the external tank into the large spheres that you see out at the launch pad. So, we do recover the fuel. Some of it is lost in boiling off during the attempt, but never-the-less we do reuse about 90% of the fuel.

from here

As far as limiting the number of launches, I do not believe that availability of the propellants was ever the limiting factor. Rules about crew and launch team fatigue would kick in before that ever happened.

The space agency usually limits the number of consecutive launch attempts to two in order to give the astronauts and launch team a rest.

(Note this is from an article about STS-101 where they planned to attempt an unusual 3rd-try-in-a-row)

For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

You can see the storage spheres in this picture. The tall tank nearer to the pad is water for the deluge system.

enter image description here

From here

As far as detanking, the propellants went back to the storage spheres, albeit with some inevitable losses.

We drain back from the external tank into the large spheres that you see out at the launch pad. So, we do recover the fuel. Some of it is lost in boiling off during the attempt, but never-the-less we do reuse about 90% of the fuel.

from here

For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

You can see the storage spheres in this picture. The tall tank nearer to the pad is water for the deluge system.

enter image description here

From here

As far as detanking, the propellants went back to the storage spheres, albeit with some inevitable losses.

We drain back from the external tank into the large spheres that you see out at the launch pad. So, we do recover the fuel. Some of it is lost in boiling off during the attempt, but never-the-less we do reuse about 90% of the fuel.

from here

As far as limiting the number of launches, I do not believe that availability of the propellants was ever the limiting factor. Rules about crew and launch team fatigue would kick in before that ever happened.

The space agency usually limits the number of consecutive launch attempts to two in order to give the astronauts and launch team a rest.

(Note this is from an article about STS-101 where they planned to attempt an unusual 3rd-try-in-a-row)

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Source Link
Organic Marble
  • 189.1k
  • 9
  • 655
  • 853

For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

I am pretty sure the LOX tank dates from the Apollo era. I remember some work being done on it because the insulation broke down in spots. The LH2 tank was most likely new construction for shuttle.

You can see the storage spheres in this picture. The tall tank nearer to the pad is water for the deluge system.

enter image description here

From here

As far as detanking, the propellants went back to the storage spheres, albeit with some inevitable losses.

We drain back from the external tank into the large spheres that you see out at the launch pad. So, we do recover the fuel. Some of it is lost in boiling off during the attempt, but never-the-less we do reuse about 90% of the fuel.

from here

For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

I am pretty sure the LOX tank dates from the Apollo era. I remember some work being done on it because the insulation broke down in spots. The LH2 tank was most likely new construction for shuttle.

You can see the storage spheres in this picture. The tall tank nearer to the pad is water for the deluge system.

enter image description here

From here

As far as detanking, the propellants went back to the storage spheres, albeit with some inevitable losses.

We drain back from the external tank into the large spheres that you see out at the launch pad. So, we do recover the fuel. Some of it is lost in boiling off during the attempt, but never-the-less we do reuse about 90% of the fuel.

from here

For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

You can see the storage spheres in this picture. The tall tank nearer to the pad is water for the deluge system.

enter image description here

From here

As far as detanking, the propellants went back to the storage spheres, albeit with some inevitable losses.

We drain back from the external tank into the large spheres that you see out at the launch pad. So, we do recover the fuel. Some of it is lost in boiling off during the attempt, but never-the-less we do reuse about 90% of the fuel.

from here

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Source Link
Organic Marble
  • 189.1k
  • 9
  • 655
  • 853

For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

I am pretty sure the LOX tank dates from the Apollo era. I remember some work being done on it because the insulation broke down in spots. The LH2 tank was most likely new construction for shuttle.

You can see the storage spheres in this picture. The tall tank nearer to the pad is water for the deluge system.

enter image description here

From here

As far as detanking, the propellants went back to the storage spheres, albeit with some inevitable losses.

We drain back from the external tank into the large spheres that you see out at the launch pad. So, we do recover the fuel. Some of it is lost in boiling off during the attempt, but never-the-less we do reuse about 90% of the fuel.

from here

For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

I am pretty sure the LOX tank dates from the Apollo era. I remember some work being done on it because the insulation broke down in spots. The LH2 tank was most likely new construction for shuttle.

From here

For shuttle,

Liquid oxygen used as an oxidizer by the orbiter main engines is stored in a 900,000-gallon tank on the pad's northwest corner, while the liquid hydrogen used as a fuel is kept in an 850,000-gallon tank on the northeast corner.

I am pretty sure the LOX tank dates from the Apollo era. I remember some work being done on it because the insulation broke down in spots. The LH2 tank was most likely new construction for shuttle.

You can see the storage spheres in this picture. The tall tank nearer to the pad is water for the deluge system.

enter image description here

From here

As far as detanking, the propellants went back to the storage spheres, albeit with some inevitable losses.

We drain back from the external tank into the large spheres that you see out at the launch pad. So, we do recover the fuel. Some of it is lost in boiling off during the attempt, but never-the-less we do reuse about 90% of the fuel.

from here

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Organic Marble
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