The problem with the STS is compromise between NASA and the DOD and of course fitting hardware to budget.

If they had truly built a fully reusable system which didn't require servicing by a small army it would still be worthwhile using and would never have had the two failures it has had.

Getting back to Geoff post. I don't believe fueling in space is better or cheaper than just launching with enough in the first place. The infrastructure that must be built to make fuel anywhere in space cost would cost hundreds of billion of dollars over hundreds of millions for launching fuel. It make no sense.