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> The Space Shuttle was given to us by typical bureaucracy, and lies. You forgot the military. They're e.g. the reason it has such big wings, because they want
by semi-extrinsic 11y ago
> The Space Shuttle was given to us by typical bureaucracy, and lies.
You forgot the military. They're e.g. the reason it has such big wings, because they wanted a huge single-orbit crossrange capability. Presumably for spying, maybe as a backup in case the Russians shot down a Keyhole or something.
- _vk_ 11y agoNot so. The crossrange capability was driven by the abort scenarios. http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum30/HTML/001340.html http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum30/HTML/001340.html http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=4998.0 http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=4998.0
- semi-extrinsic 11y agoThis is where I got the info: http://space.stackexchange.com/a/1400 http://space.stackexchange.com/a/1400 Your sources seem more credible, but it's (obviously) hard to get concrete facts on military applications of the shuttle.