Bingo. I've heard long ago that the SSMEs were cutting edge, "race car" (exactly those words) engines, and that's why they required a complete rebuild after ea

Bingo. I've heard long ago that the SSMEs were cutting edge, "race car" (exactly those words) engines, and that's why they required a complete rebuild after each mission. In another subthread, someone commented on the Space Shuttle being designed for reuse. Well, sort of, especially at the beginning, at the top, but various ambitions that weren't strictly needed (e.g. the SSMEs, single polar orbit missions) and insufficient budget (turning the reusable first stage every one envisioned before into the kludge of the throwaway tank and massively dangerous SRBs) meant by the time it launched it had no hope whatsoever of meeting those goals. Add bogus safety calculations, and it was never going to be a "space truck". Space X, on the other hand, seems to understand what this is all about. And unlike NASA isn't burdened by implicit requirements like employing lots of people at the maximum number of sites, or the explicit mission of boosting the South's technical prowess.