[jackbill]

It's too heavy and too complex to do the one job it absolutely must do successfully every time - get people to & from orbit - and do all the other things it's being asked to do - carry cargo, do science expiriments, push the ISS around etc. We need to get rid of this turkey and build a smaller, lighter people-carrier, and leave the cargo-hauling to some other, unmanned vehicle. If privatization is the way to do that, great.

Exactly. And at the same time, the "cargo carriers" could have been designed to become a part of the ISS.

[tricky_k_1972]

I agree whole heartidly, but if we let them kill the shuttle without a replacement in production I'm afraid you'll never be able to sell it. If you think NASA has problems getting it's buget cut every year think what would happen if they had no heavy lift vehicle and no ISS.

[onehipdad]

And at the same time, the "cargo carriers" could have been designed to become a part of the ISS.

I thought they were: Several times I've lit on the NASA channel to see animation depicting compartments stacked in the payload being removed and inserted/added on to the ISS like tinkertoys.