"Kent Betts" wrote in message

"Jon Berndt" wrote in message

", what is the thoughts on what the next space
transportation vehicle should look like?

budgeted at $2.8 billion, so for design and procurement we are looking at
about,
wild guess, $8-10 billion.

I hope not.

Then add the per-flight costs of say $300-400 million.

It had better not be.

Starts to get expensive. And the cargo capability is going to be a
token amount compared to the shuttle.

Once ISS is deemed complete, how much do they really need? If they are
flying more often, what cargo capability is needed - especially if pure
cargo flights could be done using an expendable and either "towed" to ISS
using whatever new vehicle is developed, or docked automatically?

Would a current-technology replacement for the shuttle, retaining its
cargo
capacity, not give more for the dollar? Still gets back to the question
of
where do you go in the thing. For the cost of the space plane we could do
a
Mars orbital mission.

Interplanetary or lunar missions are different missions, different
functions - therefore different forms. I would not expect or design a
vehicle to do space-taxi-to-ISS and also lunar/interplanetary missions. I
think it would blossom the development costs exponentially to have to
develop a vehicle that would be expected to fill needs that wide ranging.

Jon