On Dec 31, 12:47*am, Dean Hoffman "
wrote:
On 12/30/12 6:36 PM, wrote:

The supposition is it would be one nobody was supposed to know about,
ours or theirs.
The reality is they did bring the Hubble into the cargo bay and fix
it. That may have been the most useful thing the Shuttle ever did.

Harry is right that the shuttle had a 40% failure rate and it sucked
most of the money out of the NASA budget, stifling further rocket
development and putting us where we are today. (riding with the
Ruskies)

* * *Would the International Space Station have been possible without
the Shuttle? *I haven't heard much about it lately.

Failure is not talked about in America.
I think there is an American up there right now.
The US finds it cheaper to pay the Russians than do their own thing.