Space tourism, and the unspoken US victory in space

--- gardener1_98 wrote:
I've wondered for years why we can't do something like this.
> After all, the shuttle is already kind of a "space bus", why not make
> it so in reality.

There are safety reasons not to do this. Something about no escape system
being possible in a tourism module.

> An unspoken US victory? Recent news about old Russian shuttles
> for sale, etc illustrated another fact. As steady and reliable as
> the old Soyuz boosters are, they are still updated 3-man expendable
> boosters (1960's tech). Try as they might, the old Soviet regimes
> could not get an effective shuttle transportation system up and
> running. They threw in the towel after one flight. Ours is still
> perking along after 109 successful flights. Put that in your pipe
> and smoke it :-) :-)

Of course the Buran went into space unmanned and even did the landing with no
one on board. See if the shuttle can do that?

I think the reason Buran wasn't flown any more was more to do with not being
enough money to run it then it not being any good. It's probably a little
better then the STS.