re: Re-revised memory
From 1972 to 1978, it was perfectly legitimate to believe the shuttle would reduce the cost of sending humans to space (by being used more than 24 times a year as we thought). And therefore, thanks to reduced costs, it would be easier to return back to the Moon and do other things.
By 1979, with tiles being ripped off the shuttle, once the Jumbo carrier acquired speed on the airfield, things dramatically changed.
But I do very well remember several years when the Shuttle was proposed as the answer to the Saturn V ELV huge costs.