[rsynnott]

This is actually the future NASA wanted (kinda; the Sea Dragon was always a _bit_ on the fanciful side). The shuttle (or at least _a_ shuttle; early designs were pretty different) was supposed to sit alongside Saturn V descendants; the shuttle as a cheap frequent manned launcher (of course, in reality it was anything but, but they didn't know that at the time), and the Saturn V derivatives for big heavy stuff.

In the event, budgets got cut, and the Saturn V derivatives went away.

Granted, the Shuttle going to _the moon_ is a weird one, alright.