On Dec 31, 2:14*am, wrote:
On Sun, 30 Dec 2012 18:47:33 -0600, 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.

As much as I like the idea of Hubble and all the pretty pictures, it
could have been replaced with the money spent on repairing it. *It
really hasn't had a great ROI.

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.

Has the ISS done anything useful in its life, other than give the
Shuttle some place to go?

They have done a lot of experimentation only possible in zero G.