The shuttle program did not hold mankind back in any way. Read more

Justifying an entire program like this because it was able to fix a faulty telescope is ridiculous. Read more

I totally support your statement. I love the space shuttle. I remember my dad waking me up as a kid to watch an early launch on tv and being in awe of it from the start. My dream was to see a shuttle launch live. I finally got to see Atlantis launch in 2006. I wasn’t on NASA property, but it was still thrilling. Sadly… Read more

I love the space shuttle and it’s neat as hell but you’re right. Gotta call a spade a spade. Emotional love for a neat spacecraft != best program for the $. The fact that the last test of the Orion got a [potentially crewed] craft further into space than we’ve been since the Apollo era is all you need to know. Read more

I can’t help but agree completely that as useful as the Shuttle was, and as good as it was as a concept, it really was kind of a NASA-killer. Rather than continue the Apollo gung-ho exploration, we focused on orbit- had the Shuttle been used to support further exploration and setting ourselves up for the next great… Read more

Oh, it certainly held the US back. Despite its accomplishments, the Shuttle was a white elephant that ate up so much money it stunted growth in other areas of space exploration. Read more

I have written about this a lot in the past and I will post a full article to justify my position. But largely, the Shuttle was a failure. Look at the requirements and investment and look what actually happened, it was not even close. The cost-effective, safe space taxi ended up being so expensive it locked NASA into… Read more

I think the argument isn’t that the shuttle didn’t accomplish anything; but rather, that a differently designed space vehicle, or even standard non-reusable rockets, could have accomplished even more, or at least could have done the same things on a smaller budget (hopefully leaving NASA with more funds for other… Read more

Grow up. Read more

I love the shuttles as much as anyone. More than many, perhaps - I went to LA just to see it moved through the streets. I think he has some valid points though. The shuttle never did deliver on the low cost space exploration promise - perhaps it might have if we had continued with it. And I think it is unfair to blame… Read more

“Sadly, the Shuttle Program would turn out to be more of a very expensive anchor that would keep mankind stuck in orbit for decades than a economical space plane that could facilitate exploration beyond earth’s orbit.” Read more

The shuttle facilitated a lot of scicne, including the ISS, but it did have a couple side effects, namely, people got bored with it, and NASA is now a shell of its former self (though an incredibly resilient shell). Public interest in the ISS and in LEO science is pretty much where its always been (zero) and that is… Read more

Thanks for your well reasoned thoughts Tyler. Read more

Thanks for the great write up Tyler. This is in my opinion the most import deciding factor of who should be the future president, and you managed to cover both parties without bias. Read more

This. I was hoping they’d critique the Democrats as well if they ever got down to debates. That Tyler has done so increases my respect for him (which was already considerable). Read more

Tyler, thanks for these posts, very informative. Read more

Tyler Rogoway, I have never read an article of yours before but this one was fantastic and thorough and I can’t believe how fast you got this up. Good job! Read more

Tyler is a beacon of light in the Gawker universe. Read more

Great piece, many thanks for remaining unbiased and doing the same piece for both party debates. Read more

In many ways this is a lot more chilling than any number of clickbait articles or sensationalist CNN headlines. This is the military industrial complex following the money. This is defense contractors feeling quite confident in where their wares are going to be headed. It’s a sure sign of where all these company’s… Read more