(Even allowing for inflation.)

I agree with your concerns, completely. I don’t know about enlarging ISS forever, or using a Shuttle to keep supplying it. Assembly of large inter-planetary vehicles would be neat, but no one is talking about them, and rockets such as Proton could launch the modules. I asked the question because a shuttle, at least with the missions described so far, seems very expensive. It does seem pretty good for servicing the Hubble, though.

Here’s how it looked to one interested observer in the late ‘60s.

Dr. Wernher von Braun, “Space Frontiers”, 1969

“I think we can expect a reusable launch vehicle to become available at sometime between 1975 and 1980. We can expect such a vehicle to be capable of at least fifty to one hundred flights to orbit. There is no reason why it could not make at least one flight weekly. Under these assumptions, we can expect the cost of orbital transportation to drop from the present 500 dollars a pound to fifty dollars a pound, or even less.”

“Before we can set out to spend a billion dollars or more to develop a reusable launch vehicle, we must seek for it a many-purpose capability that will satisfy at least a major portion of our space-transportation needs for the next decade or so.”

Arf