On Dec 31, 3:25*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.

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.

I can't imagine why not, particularly if we had spent our money on a
good cheap heavy lift vehicle instead of nursing the shuttle along a
decade too long. They should have started migrating away from that hog
after Challenger.

Don't worry.We are designing a new engine in the UK that will solve
the problem.