NASA Admin Says Shuttle and ISS aMistakes

Its grand to say that both space shuttle and Space station were
mistakes...but what would / should have been done instead knowing what was
known at that time?

The Russians did the buran which didn't appear too much different,
although they did use liquid fuel that was throttle-able and also had a
greater payload.... That's would seem at least to indicate that there must
have been SOME merit in the over all concept to have a relative duplicate
design by another countries agency...

Fiannly, someone high up at NASA with the guts to admit it...

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-09-27-nasa-griffin-interview_x.htm

From there:

"The space shuttle and International Space Station nearly the whole of
the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades were mistakes,
NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday."

Discussed at:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid/09/28/1231242&threshold=2&tid#6&tid

From there:

"Teancum writes "NASA Administrator Michael Griffin was recently
interviewed by the USA Today Editorial Board regarding the current
direction of the U.S. Space Program, and in the interview he suggested
that the past three decades have been a huge mistake and a waste of
resources. As a total cost for both programs that has exceeded $250
Billion, you have to wonder what other useful things could have been
developed using the same resources. Griffin quoted in the interview
regarding if the shuttle had been a mistake "My opinion is that it was...
It was a design which was extremely aggressive and just barely possible."
Regarding the ISS: "Had the decision been mine, we would not have built
the space station we're building in the orbit we're building it in."" "

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Just think what $250 billion could have given us in invested in
self-replicating space habitats...

--Paul Fernhout