The astroplatform - A dedicated reusable Shuttle platform

The Space Shuttle allows the implementation of a new spacecraft concept - the reusable platform. THe SPAS-01 launch in early 1983 will demonstrate the feasibility and economy of this approach. As an example for a dedicated reusable platform the ASTROPLATFORM is described in this paper. It is a small platform with high pointing accuracy which can be equipped with different telescopes in sequence. This allows to plan for a series of missions with the same basic spacecraft which is refurbished after each flight and re-equipped with another instrument. The economic advantages of this approach are considerable: the comparison with expendable spacecraft and Shuttle sortie missions using the IPS shows a reduction of the program cost to about 50%.