To add to your list:
- Because the PR aspect of the shuttle needed to plant the idea of space travel as routine, the shuttle was designed to land like a conventional aircraft. This meant landing gear, wings, and systems to control an aircraft-like landing process.
Much weight, cost, and complexity could have been saved if the shuttle simply splashed down in the ocean like a typical space craft returning from orbit, but that didn’t fit NASA’s marketing plans.
I think they had some problems with the splashdowns...at least one went to the bottom of the ocean, I believe...and there was always the risk of Soviet interference, if the Navy couldn’t get there first. So I think there was some legitimacy to the desire to land on soil instead of ocean.
But I certainly do remember the kumbyah atmosphere of the early shuttle program...which never really stopped.