These advances would have come whether the vehicle used for human space flight was the shuttle or not. My point for bashing the shuttle is that SO MUCH was invested in making the most complex machine the world has ever seen to go THREE HUNDRED miles into space. THREE HUNDRED MILES!!!! Most times the Shuttle doesn't even make it that far. What do you think Ruttan could do with the tiniest fraction of what NASA has pissed away to go THREE HUNDRED MILES into space.
In case you are wondering why I am emphasizing 300 miles(give or take a couple dozen miles of course), is because it is a JOKE to be stuck, and don't kid yourself, we are stuck at this mark. NO human advancement into space is really going to take place until we establish ourselves at the Lagrange points We had the ability to do such in the freakin 60s, but our wonderful NASA desided to piss away the next 40 years of human space flight to build a hunk of complex junk that can BARELY Slip the Surly Bonds of Earth.
And don't even get me started on the International Space Station. All a waste that have taken the worlds amazement and awe of space travel and threw it into the refuse bin. Children no longer want to be astronauts. Why invest your life in something that is a pale comparison to something others have done in the past?
Yes, I understand the need to reorganize after the moon missions, because the Apollo program was to say we can do it, versus actually doing somethign while we are there. GReat, get your house in order for a decade or two, but it's been over 30 years since we've been to the moon and how did NASA get it's house in order in this time? By spending an untold amount of money to do something that old technology could do cheaper, faster, safer, etc...
The shuttle and International Space Station have all but killed America's dream of space exploration. It makes we want to cry to be perfectly honest with you.
our wonderful NASA desided to piss away the next 40 years of human space flight to build a hunk of complex junk that can BARELY Slip the Surly Bonds of Earth.NASA doesn't write its own budget, the Congress does that. Johnson's and Nixon's war in Vietnam ate the Apollo program. I love that scene in the movie "Apollo 13" where the politician says to Lovell, "if there is an Apollo 14," then goes on to complain that, having beaten the Russians to the Moon, there wasn't any further point to funding Apollo. The short attention span of most the public regarding space is well summed up by those fictionalized remarks.
Sorry, but you've just revealed your ignorance. The Shuttle flies that high because that's the mission it was designed to fly. Go do some research on selection of orbits for space missions to get a better understanding of the rationale.
Moreover, the distance from Earth has nothing to do with the complexity of the Shuttle. The requirement to return, land like an airplane, and be launched again is the driver for the Shuttle's complexity.