“赫尔墨斯”航天飞机的初步研究已近尾声,但“赫尔墨斯”的重量仍在不断增加,其中包括机组人员、有效载荷及访问空间站的消耗品,其总重量目前至少已达21吨,即比原先估计的重4吨。一般在原型机评审时往往会增加重量,但对“赫尔墨斯”来说还有另外两个原因:其一是在“挑战者”号航天飞机事故以后,坚持要设机组人员逃逸 Preliminary research on the Hermes shuttle is almost complete, but Hermes continues to gain in weight, including crewmembers, payloads and consumables to visit space stations, whose weight now stands at least 21 tons, which is 4 tons heavier than originally estimated. Normally there will be more weight added to the prototype review, but there are two other reasons for the “Hermes”: one is to persuade flight crews to flee after the “Challenger” space shuttle accident