[Stefan Stackhouse]

38 - "There seem to have been so many tile-related incidents with regard to the shuttles. Is the tech there now to replace tiling with, for example, a seamless covering for the entire vehicle, or am I straying into the realm of science-fiction?"

Not that I know of. I think you would have to repeal a few laws of physics and thermodynamics. (expansion and contraction) at different rates, and the 'gap filler' between the tiles.

A thought: if we just sent cargo up separately in rockets and didn't try to carry BOTH cargo and people in the same vessel, then the shuttle would not have needed to be nearly as large and heavy as it is. A smaller spacecraft would have meant fewer tiles -- and thus fewer things that might go wrong. It would have also meant a different (and smaller) configuration of rocketry to boost it into orbit -- would "smaller" in this case also mean "safer"? A smaller shuttle not configured to carry cargo might also have endured fewer stresses on re-entry, and it might actually be configured as a flyable space-plane, instead of the "flying brick" that it presently is.

Is it time to consider replacing the shuttle with a new generation of space craft?

[XBob]

75 point well taken - actually, it is a flying 'truck'

Actually, NASA has already done this and has designed and even test flown a few different designs, but has never gotten any funding much.

The reason - the shuttle job/parts/program employs people in nearly every congressional district in the country.

Your idea would not employ nearly as many people in so many congressional districts.

PS, It was designed this way from the start, as a way to get it funded.

[poindexter]

"Is it time to consider replacing the shuttle with a new generation of space craft?"

It was time to do that 10 years ago.