"Mitchell Holman" wrote in message
. 130...

Since the newest shuttle was built in 1983 I can understand
the reluctance of NASA to keep using them.

20th technology being dragged into the 21st century and all
that............

Nothing wrong with the shuttle's technology; it's just _too_ advanced and
complex for what it does. That's why they're going back to a capsule
(Orion) for personnel and small cargo, and using ELV's (Expendable Launch
Vehicles) for large payloads like future station modules.

The structures of the shuttles is still top-notch and the subsystems are
updated quite regularly (they were modified to a 'glass' cockpit some years
ago, for instance, to replace the dials-and-guages style instrumentation).
They could run them for another 20 years or so, but they are just too
expensive. I mean, the only real competition is from Soyuz, which is over
40 years old and costs about $20million per person, per flight; the shuttle
is 10 times more expensive.

Remember, the shuttle was designed to carry cargo into space (payload of
over 21 tonnes); but after Challenger, it was deemed too dangerous to do
that. That's why the ELV's were brought back (the shuttle was supposed to
replace them all).