Jeff Foust takes on what he calls the “myth of heavy lift”.
Despite myself, I am coming around to this conclusion myself, and for the reasons Jeff articulates. I still think it would be a shame to simply throw away the “potential” that exists in the decades-long investment represented by the Shuttle and its related manufacturing and launch infrastructure, but it’s getting harder to see exactly what, in practical rather than emotional terms, that potential really is…we ought not build a Shuttle-derived vehicle for its own sake, it has to have something to do, for which no alternative is available. While the former requirement is shaping up, the latter is growing more questionable.