In article ,
(Jay Masino) wrote:


The Shuttle's purpose was more than just lifting payloads. It's both a
scientific platform, as well as a on-orbit repair station.


Little to completely negligible meaningful science actually done with or
on the shuttle; shuttle launches for repair missions of unamnned
orbitals cost more than rebuilding and relaunching a new copy of the
same item; plus limiting the unmanned orbital to an orbit reachable by
the shuttle generally significantly compromises its performance.