Shuttle mistake -- what should have been done?

the mistake is not the shuttle itself which
represented an important step forward from the Apollo
system, despite the fact that it didn't accomplished ,
for budgetary reasons, its intended 100% reusability.
After all we started landing on the sea and mobilizing
the fleet at the end of every landing while with the
shuttle we landed in airports and it was possible to
carry average passengers.
The real mistake IMO is the fact that we are not
capitalizing on the shuttle experience.
Its successor should include all the improvements,
capabilities and goals that 30 years of aerospace
progress have achieved.
A two stage, hotol type of vehicle to orbit, all
reusable, with an unmanned booster that would land on
the takeoff airport after separation and a manned
orbiter that would do the same after completing its
mission.
Without complete reusability and commercial airline
type of operations the space frontier will never be
reached.
--- glbriley glb_31@... ha scritto: