[bicycle thug]

The Enterprise which was non orbitting test vehicle is already at the Smithsonian. I don't think they have the budget and storage for three more OVs.

We still need these vehicles that were projected to each fly approximately one hundred missions. But I agree the craft is cetainly no longer 'state of the art.' But thank to many myopic budget cuts over the years that would have given us the access to space we need to develop that frontier.

another Enterprise link
and another

[KevinDavis]

Also I think that we should have continued the X-15 project (the earlier version of the space plane) route. From what I understand the X-15 we near the edge of space. Too bad we stopped it and gone with the Shuttle route.

[jehosophat]

I agree that space has not adequately been a national priority, in fact under President Carter the Space Budget was practically devastated. Yet, the shuttle was unrealistically oversold from the beginning! The origina proposal was for 40 flights a year. This is insanity for an outrageously expensive and dangerous system. Let's return to sanity and keep it simple when we effectively continue our space program where we left it around 1970.

[Paul Ross]

Yep, we still need the orbiter-type vehicle. Absolute only way to do the repair missions. But these missions are relative rarities. So the stress on the shuttle fleet can be reduced, once serious boost alternatives are available for the human-ferry and unmanned payload missions. Anybody compare launch costs for a shuttle unmanned payload versus an Atlas 5 (which is a totally NEW vehicle, BTW)?