Burt, we're talking about a government agency that launched a generation old idea called the space bus in the 1980s. They wouldn't know a good idea if it bit them. They're existing off government money
NASA wasting taxpayer dollars since 1958
They were formulating test questions, and one of the things I was tasked to do was figure out speculative problems. These problems could only be figured out using methods and techniques that elementary thru high-school kids would know; they didn't want kids spinning their gears on a timed even that only savants would be able to figure out (how to score gold, silver bronze is the question). This was an outgrowth from the previous year, when at the regionials the proctors had to solve all the problems prior to the events.
Mind you, my assistant and I were employed by the guy who gave us this opportunity in the capacity of programmer/analysts for the sole purpose of deveoloping his medical practice management software. So we knew our stuff.
Anyways, I was given the task to solve the problem of defining how many launches it would take of the space shuttle to break even (compared to Apollo style launches).
You know what? I couldn't do it in 1989. Boss man didn't like that. NO matter what we did, it couldn't be resolved: Shuttle was more expensive than Apollo. Bossman (who was a Ph.D. pathologist with a photographic memory), threw some magic at the problem that at the time I never seen before (solving multiple simultaneous equations of numerous variable utilizing matrixes): and ended up throwing his hands up in the air, looked at me and said: "You know what this is?"
"Uh, the assumptions are wrong?"
"No. This is just another example of a government boondoggle that's going to cost us billions (if not trillions)."
That's a no-defacator.
Nevertheless, and the foregoing notwithstanding, I've always had a penchant for the Shuttle (even knowing what I did). I've always thought it was a cool concept: reusable space-craft.