re: Space Shuttle was a colossal waste of money

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I just think that things like the space shuttle and ISS have other vested interest besides advancing our exploration of space

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Well, you're right about the shuttle. We didn't build the shuttle because we got tired of using a Saturn launch system. We built the shuttle because the military wanted to use it to launch and RETRIEVE spy satellites, basically. Can't retrieve stuff with traditional style launch systems. To retrieve, you need a payload bay and way to bring it back. Hence, the shuttle. By the time the military gave up on bringing stuff back via the SLS and backed out of their promised launches, we'd already gone too far down the shuttle route to back away.

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This is not true. The Columbia disaster was a combination of a poorly designed and inadequately tested SRB O-ring (Morton-Thiokol in Utah) and launching in cold/freezing weather. Consequently, the O-ring failed to adequately expand during launch resulting in O-ring blowby right into the external tank. The external tank insulation was only designed as insulation for the cryogenic fuel, not as a shield against an O-ring blow torch. The warning signs about the O-rings and the cold were there but ignored.

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This was Challenger

All resources should be put into the space elevator project.

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All resources should be put into the space elevator project.

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Makes more sense than the shuttle.

And don't forget cars, airplanes,trains, medical clinical trials, and knives. Can't even imagine how many people have been killed by these wastes of money. (This is sarcasm for those who don't understand sarcasm).

84 is me, you moron.

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Columbia was the first flight worthy shuttle and Discovery was to be the first shuttle dedicated for military use.

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The first flight out of Vandenberg (STS-62-A) got to the point of even having a crew selected:

PeeJ, it was the ability to reuse the solid rocket boosters. We could land reuse the Solid Boosters.


Also, we could spy on Soviet satellites. To the point of sending Astronauts to Soviet satellites.

And much more.

The shuttle was the equivalent of a space-going 18-wheeler built to carry large payloads such as satellites and pieces of the ISS into space. When that function was no longer needed it didn't make sense to continue using the shuttle just to ferry astronauts and small amounts of supplies to the ISS. Lots of folks complained when the shuttle program ended but it had to be done for practical reasons. There was a smaller craft, without the large payload area, that NASA had in the design stages in the 90s, but it was scrapped because the Bush administration needed the money for the war against terrorism. When Obama finally pulled the plug on the shuttle it had already lasted many years more than was originally intended and had fulfilled its purpose in helping to build the ISS.