4 ms·

As we all know by now, the launch system has its flaws (segmented solids and loosely insulated liquid tanks). The economics of Shuttle was grotesquely oversold

As we all know by now, the launch system has its flaws (segmented solids and loosely insulated liquid tanks). The economics of Shuttle was grotesquely oversold, and satellites were limited to LEO because that was the service ceiling for the platform. NASA never should have relied on Shuttle to do all its lifting; the back-breaker for the US Air Force was the launch delay during the Challenger investigation. Shouldn't have been using a man-rated vehicle to tow satellites into orbit to begin with. But the orbiter itself is a work of art, a dazzlingly complex system, finely tuned to operate on the hairy edge of materials science and meticulously maintained. For all its expense, it was done right, and I rather wish there was the money to do it again with 21st century tech.

InclinedPlane 16y ago
The Shuttle system was a triumph of technological marvel on top of technological marvel that even today deserves respect. Nevertheless, it was the wrong design for its mission, overcomplicated, expensive, and impractical. That it did fly is a testament to engineering savvy and determination. But it flew on the back of a standing army of aerospace engineers costing billions of dollars a year and upwards of half a billion dollars a flight. That aspect is not something to be proud of. The opportunity cost due to the Shuttle system in terms of things we could have done with the same money and resources is nothing short of breathtaking, and must be counted as a significant tragedy in the annals of manned spaceflight. Consider that every single Shuttle flight (all 100 or so of them) ranks up there with a Saturn V launch in terms of expense, engineering, complexity, and hardware. Imagine where we would be today if instead of 100 Shuttle flights we had had 100 Saturn V launches. The Shuttle design turned out to be deeply flawed in ways that prevented it from ever achieving a high flight rate (the only way to dramatically lower costs with a reusable vehicle) and was at best only quasi-reusable. Worse yet, it was burdened with requirements from the military which ended up not being used and took a heavy toll on the system's capabilities, robustness, and efficiency. It's telling that of the many new clean-sheet designs for manned space vehicles the particular characteristics of the Shuttle are absent. The Shuttle performed its primary mission of keeping the prestige of the US through the maintenance of an impressive looking manned spaceflight program. But in terms of advancing manned space exploration the Shuttle was a failure. And all of this is independent of the safety problems of the Shuttle system. My heart still stirs when I see a Shuttle launch, but my head cannot help but see the terrible flaws of the program.

InclinedPlane 16y ago

The Shuttle system was a triumph of technological marvel on top of technological marvel that even today deserves respect. Nevertheless, it was the wrong design for its mission, overcomplicated, expensive, and impractical. That it did fly is a testament to engineering savvy and determination. But it flew on the back of a standing army of aerospace engineers costing billions of dollars a year and upwards of half a billion dollars a flight. That aspect is not something to be proud of. The opportunity cost due to the Shuttle system in terms of things we could have done with the same money and resources is nothing short of breathtaking, and must be counted as a significant tragedy in the annals of manned spaceflight. Consider that every single Shuttle flight (all 100 or so of them) ranks up there with a Saturn V launch in terms of expense, engineering, complexity, and hardware. Imagine where we would be today if instead of 100 Shuttle flights we had had 100 Saturn V launches. The Shuttle design turned out to be deeply flawed in ways that prevented it from ever achieving a high flight rate (the only way to dramatically lower costs with a reusable vehicle) and was at best only quasi-reusable. Worse yet, it was burdened with requirements from the military which ended up not being used and took a heavy toll on the system's capabilities, robustness, and efficiency. It's telling that of the many new clean-sheet designs for manned space vehicles the particular characteristics of the Shuttle are absent. The Shuttle performed its primary mission of keeping the prestige of the US through the maintenance of an impressive looking manned spaceflight program. But in terms of advancing manned space exploration the Shuttle was a failure. And all of this is independent of the safety problems of the Shuttle system. My heart still stirs when I see a Shuttle launch, but my head cannot help but see the terrible flaws of the program.