One disturbing trend of the past few decades has been the growth in "educational outreach" and the flight of "school fair" science projects on the ISS and Shuttle, while serious scientists are starved of tenure, project funds, and opportunity to conduct real science.

Whilst there is some value in pushing science to a wide market of impressionable kids, if the core value and career pathways aren't there, then the Emperor truly has no clothes, IMHO.

Science by PR isn't science at all.

I'm sure Gary would agree with me on this issue - his group is seeing a wave of retirement (and deaths) with key people skills leaving, never to be replaced and without continuity because the manpower was not maintained after the huge growth wave of the 60's.

Having built Shuttle I, there should have been an evolutionary path to design and build Shuttle II, which could take over after the design life of the first birds was spent. I know that in military circles, some designs are extraordinarily long lived, like the B-52, but those airframes are getting old and wrinkled these days. If they actually had to work to do their jobs, rather than flying over an effectively defenceless battlefield, then they would have expired long ago.

Similarly, the aerodynamic and rentry stresses of the Shuttle are extreme and one bird can only take so many of them before something goes wrong.

We're finally seeing that intent to build Shuttle II, or whatever will be used next. But it's a bit late, IMHO. If the shuttles ever fly again, it won't be for long, and it will continue to suck huge budgets from the real job of getting something successful up there.

Far better, as I see it, to junk the shuttles now, and go all out to design and build a cheaper, better, and more robust replacement heavy lifter, and stop telling the kids of the world that the future will be rosy. It won't - it will be hard work, with frustrating and painful failures. But it will be fun, betimes.