[sitkack]

In my ideal universe, we have a JWST assembly line.

[theultdev]

I mean, there's no reason a Starship can't be turned into a space telescope, and it's pretty much an assembly line rocket.

Also no reason why it can't be an ISS, and no reason you couldn't link multiple together.

Pretty useful to have a reusable grain silo you can launch and land.

[blkhawk]

...in orbit. Imagine what a device could do you can just take a wrench to if it breaks. and how much cheaper you could build that.

[Retric]

Not so much.

It was a huge publicity boost for NASA, but not actually an efficient use of resources in terms of % shuttle missions * total cost of the shuttle program. That’s arguably unfair because of the sunk cost issue and how the budget was setup, but manned missions are inherently expensive and even more so if you’re trying to match arbitrary orbits.