New Mars Forums

The problem with the shuttle is the maintenance and reliability.  As things get older, they stop working as they should or they work less effectively as they should.  Replacement parts are more expensive and harder to attain as they are rarer since they are no longer in production.  There were 5 shuttles in the shuttle fleet, but 2 of them have perished.  Enterprise doesn't count because it wasn't built for space flight.  The space shuttle is 30 years old.  I rarely see cars from the '70s.  The best thing the government can do is retire the shuttle and minimize casualties.  The shuttle has already claimed 14 lives, 14 more that should have been lost.  The shuttle is simply obsolete.  There's nothing wrong with going back to the rocket, as it is currently the only method to escaping earth's gravity.  Refitting the shuttles to escape earth's gravity would also be a disaster.  The shuttle simply isn't built to go into deep space.  If NASA were to do this, probably more lives would be lost and money would be wasted.