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NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake I certainly agree with that statement, but I thought he wouldn't say it so bluntly. But he's an engineer, and we engineers aren't always known for our subtle way of putting things.

After reading the article it sounds more like media spin than anything (no offense intended, Joe). Here is the USA Today spin: "NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake" 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. Here is some text from the actual interview in the article: In a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board, Griffin said NASA lost its way in the 1970s, when the agency ended the Apollo moon missions in favor of developing the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth. "It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path," Griffin said. "We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can." And some more article text: Asked Tuesday whether the shuttle had been a mistake, Griffin said, "My opinion is that it was. ... It was a design which was extremely aggressive and just barely possible." Asked whether the space station had been a mistake, he said, "Had the decision been mine, we would not have built the space station we're building in the orbit we're building it in." It seems to me that Griffin is saying that limiting space flight to low Earth orbit was the biggest part of the mistake, not the Shuttle itself, though because it was pushing the envelope technologically it was probably riskier than it needed to be. The Shuttle was basically a really expensive fork lift to take civilian, govt, and military payloads into LEO. Since all of NASA's eggs where in one LEO basket, that really hampered the development of the space program for years. Sadly, NASA has only been able to act like the FedEx of space and throwing some science in on the side when they get a chance. He also basically says that he agreed with the ISS, but would have put it in a different orbit. I don't get where USA Today comes up with the statement that Griffin thinks the entire ISS was a mistake. From other things I've read, Griffin is probably referring to putting the station in a lower inclination orbit, like 28.5 degrees, that of JSC in Florida. It would have added several thousand pounds usable payload to each shuttle flight. On the down side, it would also make it much more difficult for the Russians to get there, which is probably why the ISS is not in that orbit. Aaron