I wonder if a redesigned Shuttle would still cost so much...
The Shuttle was designed in the early '70s, and since then technology about many materials - and their construction techniques - improved a lot. Could today a Shuttle be designed with less waek points and improved, more resistant parts? Could the tile design be improved with better ceramics, and larger tiles? The Air Force has its little Shuttle that can sustain long mission and should be reusable - how much they learnt from Shuttle?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
