The thread below was about Re-usable rockets versus Expendable rockets, not about the US space accomplishments (which is the main reason I became very interested in space).

What we need to do when we love space, is to try to figure out why this works and that doesn't .

Otherwise, we're heading for big disappointments.

On march 1979, Columbia took off for the first time, on top of its 747 carrier and even before the wheels were off the ground, hundreds of tiles were ripped away.
The tiles became the shuttle's weakest link.

The HST is not the first space telescope, many have preceeded it, such as IRAS . Of course, the HST has achieved great science and has pinpointed the age of the Universe.
Most discoveries, however, require many nights from the same team for the same objective and that's not always possible with the HST (too many teams and too little time per team) and the first discovery of an exoplanet was done by a swiss team using an old telescope , but they had a lot of time ahead ! The HST has the first confirmed picture of an exoplanet, but it's probably not the first picture.

The HST has paved the way to more competition from the ground, and new space telescopes (with bigger mirrors). NASA's future telescopes will be launched by ELV's...The JWST will be launched by Ariane 5, BTW.