“But I remember the original NASA broadcasts in the 70’s, just after the final Apollo mission. It was supposed to be a true “space plane” that would take off and land like an airplane.”
Updating your memory cells:
In July 1969, the Space Shuttle Task Group issued a report that determined the Shuttle would support short-duration crewed missions and space station, as well as the capabilities to launch, service, and retrieve satellites. The report also created three classes of a future reusable shuttle: Class I would have a reusable orbiter mounted on expendable boosters, Class II would use multiple expendable rocket engines and a single propellant tank (stage-and-a-half), and Class III would have both a reusable orbiter and a reusable booster. In September 1969, the Space Task Group, under the leadership of Vice President Spiro Agnew, issued a report calling for the development of a space shuttle to bring people and cargo to low Earth orbit (LEO), as well as a space tug for transfers between orbits and the Moon, and a reusable nuclear upper stage for deep space travel.[8]: 163–166 [5]
wiki
Perhaps the memory banks are somewhat degraded over time. In any case, the space shuttle was originally supposed to be a much cheaper way to get into space. That was a bust, since it costed almost a billion dollars per launch. And on top of that, NASA was building a huge space station that I’ve never heard one good thing come out of, other than we now know how bees cope with zero gravity. That’s some valuable information, there. I’ve seen the ISS fly directly overhead, though. Pretty impressive.