Have the Space Shuttle missions been a waste of time?

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Lindajune - what prompted me to ask was because I read about NASA's Orion project and their projected return to the moon and then to Mars. It just seemed to me that the years between 1972 (the last moon landing) and now have been a distraction from further discovery.
 
NASA is not a democracy.

the best thing about the USA is that if we try something that just doesn't work, we get to change it, after 4 years... maybe 8 years.

NASA sold us a bill of goods in the 70s... the Shuttle was a MUST. "No other way" they claimed.

Suuuuuuuuure.

well, even after we discovered that the shuttles weren't much of an idea... we ended up STUCK with the damned things for 30 years... and STILL ARE!

if we had've dropped the program in 82, think how far we would be by now?
 
No, there have been countless benefits. The money might have been better spent on a cheaper system but that is the nature of bureaucracies.
 
I'm curious what would prompt you to ask that. The shuttles have been critical to a number of projects:
- Spacelab
- International Space Station - on going servicing, materials, personnel
- Hubble Space Telescope launch and servicing
- Chandra X-Ray Observatory launch
- Compton Gamma Ray Observatory launch
- launch of Venus space probe Magellan
- Earth Radiation Budget Satellite launch
- numerous communication satellite repairs, reorbits, rescues
- launch of Jupiter space probe Galileo
- launch of Ulysses solar probe
- support for the Mir space station
 
No. It's kept us in space and was the only vehicle capable of lifting some of the many parts of the space station.

A question like yours can be applied to almost anything. One thing is for sure, space technology will be necessary for the human race to survive long term. It's an exercise in learning. At some point in the future, humans will have to leave Earth to survive.
 
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