The Space Shuttle- America's Hummer.

[Kraklen]

The Space Shuttle was designed to be a better spaceship than the Saturn V. The whole idea was that you could build a reentry vehicle that was nice and big and that you could reuse over and over again. So NASA decided to stop working on the conventional one shot rockets, and put all of their eggs in one basket. They built the space shuttle, which was supposed to cheapily and effeciently get astronauts and equipment into space, so they could do things like explore, and conduct scientific experiments.

The whole thing has cost horribly wrong. It costs more money to launch the shuttle, land it, refurbish it, and get it ready for another launch then it would be to just build a whole brand spanking new one shot rocket in the first place. And the money they're using to do this is coming out of the money that should be going towards exploring space and conducting scientific experiments. Now, they say they're using the space shuttle to conduct scientific experiments. This is bullshit. The scientific experiments being conducted on the space shuttle are a joke, they're an insult to the scientific method. They're only propaganda designed to increase support for the shuttle program. Remember John Glenn's return to space? They justified his participation as an experiment in the effects of zero g on the elderly. Sounds good. The problem is Glenn didn't fit the criteria. There was no science going on. So while NASA is conducting PR stunts involving John Glenn and school children growing beans in space, real science like the Hubble and dozens of other valid apparati are being scrapped.

So why keep the Space Shuttle? Because NASA put all their eggs in one basket and they, like a certain WH administration, can't admit when they've completely screwed the goose.

Plus it looks cool.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. And it IS, after all, the world's BIGGEST phallic symbol!!!

[Beelzebud]

2. They have been working on a replacement for years.

It's a classified project, so there aren't many details about it, but I do know that the main objective is to build a space vehicle that takes off from a runway like an airplane. They have test vehicles that actually work.

It does take time to develop something this complex.

[Kraklen]

4. No, they haven't.

They've been wasting millions of dollars working on things like this.



Which only exist on paper and relying on hypothetical composite materials which don't exist and likely never will.

[Tux]

5. Project Aurora

Spaceship One was the working version but privately made and owned. The idea is valid but it is time to do away with the space shuttle and do real science with robots. Sorry, astronauts, but your jobs have been outsourced. Welcome to Bush's America.

[Goldmund]

3. Agree 100%