re: Next week's manned spaceflight from Cape Kennedy will be historic...

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The shuttle system is a piece of shite.

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Are you forgetting how often they launched the shuttles up until Challenger? There were a shite ton of military missions which are still classified. (I wouldn't be surprised if the SDI is up there in some form.) I believe at least a few of the GPS satellites went up there as military payloads. When they weren't doing that they were carrying most of the major components of the space station. In fact that's the main reason they launched those missions after Columbia.

Without it there's no way they could do things like repairing Hubble and giving it, satellites, and the space station a bit of a boost into their optimal operating heights.