> the Space Shuttle was a huge achievement for its time Agree. > as of today there is no lift system that can match it for both capacity and reusability Disa

> the Space Shuttle was a huge achievement for its time Agree. > as of today there is no lift system that can match it for both capacity and reusability Disagree. Falcon Heavy lifts higher payloads - you don't count the orbiter mass itself, do you, just like you don't count the mass of the last stage which actually gets to LEO, right? Reusability was also lacking. SSME was made by Rocketdyne, not Pratt and Whitney, who had somewhat better hydrogen technology, so after each flight SSME had to be disassembled, tested and parts nearing faults (e.g. turbines) had to be replaced. The first stage modules, which dropped to the ocean, had to be cleaned from the sea water, which also isn't an easy rinsing. And of course thermal protection tiles had to be inspected and the broken ones replaced. X-37 is way better here.