Don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful machine. I would have loved if it were cost-effective and if it has spawned a family of reusable spaceplanes. Unfortunately

Don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful machine. I would have loved if it were cost-effective and if it has spawned a family of reusable spaceplanes. Unfortunately, this is not what happened. Well, there's always the X-37B. Perhaps now that shuttle-type technology is in the hands of the USAF and away from the public eye they'll be able to do something interesting with it. Then again, maybe putting wings on a spacecraft is just a stupid idea whose pros fail to outweigh its cons.