[zugi]

> inefficiencies the shuttle had that people squabble over, it was a very inspiring program

Exactly. The shuttle program was designed by bureaucrats to be "inspiring." Which explains why it was such a dismal failure economically and in turns of safety - killing 14 people which is far more than any other rocket, and costing insanely more than expendables.

The shuttle program set the U.S. space program back by decades. We are only now finally starting to recover from its dismal failure.

[panick21_]

It wasn't designed to be inspiring. That is nonsense. Non of the designers involved would ever claim that's what they did.

It was designed in an environment they couldn't iterate and test, and tried to go from very little knowlage directly to a massively complex system.

And no only that, they were very limited in terms of funding, so anything that required to much development had to be kicked.