Actually, IMHO, the shuttle is only just hitting its' stride. Its real utility is as a pack mule for NASA.. and it excels as a man-transport system. With the creation of manned space platforms like the Int'l space station and to some extent Mir, the shuttle finally has a mission worthy of its' talents. Though, I agree with another poster below.. who asks about using the shuttle to retrieve payloads from orbit. It's an ideal *method* to do so.. and it'd be "nice" to be able to retrieve satellites and things when they're through being useful.. especially those in Geosynchronous orbit.. but the da(ng)ed thing just costs too much to operate. *That* I believe is where the space plane will come in handy. It's not just a technology showplace.. the space plane should allow for cheaper shuttling of payloads as well as faster manned transportation.. not only is it faster than the concord.. but it will hopefully be cheaper and safer.
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Actually, IMHO, the shuttle is only just hitting its' stride. Its real utility is as a pack mule for NASA.. and it excels as a man-transport system. With the creation of manned space platforms like the Int'l space station and to some extent Mir, the shuttle finally has a mission worthy of its' talents. Though, I agree with another poster below.. who asks about using the shuttle to retrieve payloads from orbit. It's an ideal *method* to do so.. and it'd be "nice" to be able to retrieve satellites and things when they're through being useful.. especially those in Geosynchronous orbit.. but the da(ng)ed thing just costs too much to operate. *That* I believe is where the space plane will come in handy. It's not just a technology showplace.. the space plane should allow for cheaper shuttling of payloads as well as faster manned transportation.. not only is it faster than the concord.. but it will hopefully be cheaper and safer.