Still, the shuttle turned out to be far more expensive than NASA had promised, and far less safe.
Now consider the things that happened when the Shuttle turned out to be crap, and then a death trap, and then a thing that had to have the International Space Station built just so it had somewhere to go.
Now consider the things that happened when the Shuttle turned out to be a bit crap, and then a death trap, and then a thing that had to have the International Space Station built just so it had somewhere to go.
Rather than being a way to develop a reusable space vehicle that could go into orbit and operate on the cheap, the shuttle turned out to be heinously expensive — call it maybe 150 to 200 percent more than traditional disposable rockets.
With Columbia safely back, coverage of the continuing shuttle programme turns into a series of firsts.
"The shuttle could turn out to be the best option".
Engineers have long dreamed of building rockets that could be used more than once, but their only serious attempt so far - America's semi-reusable Space Shuttle - turned out to be expensive and unreliable.
The panel investigating the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia turned an important corner this week, ending a honeymoon period in which it had limited itself to mostly circumspect comments about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Dr. Beckwith said Mr. O'Keefe, the NASA administrator, had taken safety concerns about the shuttle and turned them into an unexpected opportunity for the agency to achieve its exploration goals.
"With today's final launch of the space shuttle we turn the page on a remarkable period in America's history in space, while beginning the next chapter in our nation's extraordinary story of exploration," Charles Bolden, the Nasa administrator, said in a statement.
