The Shuttles served us well but I think we became over reliant on them. I think we should have kept using the Saturn V for at least some of the missions. If nothing else, continuing to use the Saturn series would have kept us closer to the direction we’re heading now with expendables.
I wonder if anyone ever considered leaving a shuttle at the space station as a lifeboat?
>>”I wonder if anyone ever considered leaving a shuttle at the space station as a lifeboat?”
Good question.
Answer:
A Soyuz space capsule took the first crew to the International Space Station in November 2000. Since that time, at least one Soyuz has always been at the Station, generally to serve as a lifeboat should the crew have to return to Earth unexpectedly.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/soyuz/index.html
In theory, the station crew might also climb into one of the American spacecraft used to transport humans to and from the ISS—either the Discovery, the Atlantis, or the Endeavor. But the U.S. shuttles are used mainly to deliver equipment to and perform construction on the station, and they have only enough power to stay in orbit for about two weeks. The Soyuz, by contrast, is a lightweight, energy-efficient vehicle that can remain docked at the space station for up to six months. There’s always at least one Soyuz docked at any given time—and two when a new crew is rotating in.
There have been past attempts to create a dedicated exit pod. In the late 1990s, NASA started developing a “crew return vehicle” for emergency situations but later scrapped the project.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/03/cosmic_lifeboats.html