Space Shuttle program
 

Here's an interesting expose article from waaay back in 1980 before Columbia blasted off for its first ever launch.. that program has had so many problems it makes you wonder why we've gotten away with only 2 shuttles destroyed and 14 or so people killed in all the launches we've had.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/fea...-fulltext.html

Good article. I never understood why we built the shuttle.. it screams of compromise. For what it costs, we should have built a true space plane. Christ, the X-15 could fly into space... if not into orbit... and that was 10 years before we went to the moon!

I really hope we can build a rail gun payload launcher or a space elevator soon. I have no real faith in the X-33 / X-34 type aircraft.... at least this time they got canned before they wasted a ton of money.

Now don't get me wrong, the shuttle is bad-ass, but it was more of an interim solution.. a compromise. Shouldn't we have a better solution by now? It's been 20 years!