A closer look
Government space orbiters were originally pitched as a cheap, reusable delivery truck for low Earth orbit, promising weekly launches that would make spaceflight completely routine; in reality, each launch cost over a billion dollars, required months of agonizingly complex refurbishment, and suffered from critical safety flaws that resulted in two tragic disasters, ultimately proving that slapping a glider onto massive explosive fuel tanks and hoping for the best is neither an economical nor particularly relaxing way to commute to the International Space Station
