[Servant of the Nine]

Contrary to someone else's observation on this thread the shuttle is an engineering marvel.

No. The shuttle as originally designed was an engineering marvel. Jimmy Carter cut the budget and they had to build of aluminum instead of titanium and them use ceramic tiles to protect the aluminum from re entry heat. The design, as built is an overweight Kludge. An obsolete one.

SO9

[MadIvan]

Here is my question: how long did they originally think shuttles would serve for - what was their "retirement" date?

Regards, Ivan

[Movemout]

"No. The shuttle as originally designed was an engineering marvel. Jimmy Carter cut the budget and they had to build of aluminum instead of titanium and them use ceramic tiles to protect the aluminum from re entry heat. The design, as built is an overweight Kludge. An obsolete one. "

I stand by my statement. The shuttle development budget was about half of what was requested. The result was still a marvelous space faring machine. It could have been better but that would have been no guarantee against catastrophic failure. People have been lulled into warm fuzzies by the endless parade of successes but the truth is that traveling to and from low earth orbit is a difficult thing to accomplish. If it were easy there would be a plethora of international manned systems. I excuse your ignorance, meaning lack of understanding, and ask that you not comment on that which you do not understand.