In retrospect I think we should have gone to the moon instead.
“Been there, done that.” :’) I think we should have put a base on the Moon, right at the far edge of the near side, and maintained crews there; ultimately we should have a far side observation station (it could be 100 percent automated now, with a cable across the landscape to the link station on the near side) where there’s zero interference from the Earth.
Also, Von Braun’s plan was to use multiple launches of the Saturn V to assemble a Mars mission in orbit (he thought it would take about 12 launches for each Mars mission), and to go by 1986. That would have been a hell of a lot better than blowing up and burning up people with the STS, and accomplishing nothing in orbit that can’t already be done robotically.