On a kilogram/dollars to LEO basis, the old Saturn-V was cheaper than the Space Shuttle and probably more reliable. NASA shot itself in the foot when they abandoned the Saturn V for the Shuttle. In an ideal world, NASA would have kept both launch systems and slowly phased out the Saturn V as heavy lift RLVs came on line. Unfortunately NASA's real choice was the Space Shuttle or smaller less capable ELVs with the man space program terminated along with interplanetary exploration. People like to blame NASA for bad decisions but most of the really dumb decisions were forced upon NASA by the political establishment.

The American Space program faced a three way fork in the road in the early 1970s under President Nixon. One road lead to immediate termination of the Space Program. Many people (most of the media pundits) were strongly advocating that path. Another road lead to a more vigorous space program with NASA establishing an outpost on Mars in 1984 (only aerospace engineers and a few visionaries were backing that plan). The third and last path was the slow death approach based upon a non-upgradeable Space Shuttle supporting a useless space station at LEO. Through the use of deception, smoke and mirrors that last path was selected.

Gary