Wasn't quite that bad. ET-94's structure was fine, it was the foam that was
sliced and diced. It would have needed an extensive respraying.

ET-139 was structurally complete, but needed final assembly and spraying..
Wouldn't have needed the whole assembly line to be brought back up.

ET-140 and 141 were structurally incomplete and would have needed major
portions of the production line to be restarted.

So maybe two more flights. *Still could have helped I think. Keep flight
controllers trained, more up/down cargo for another two years.

Oh well. *It's in the past.


shuttle C should of been built, with infrastructure supporting not
only the existing shuttle, used just for its unique abilities, in a
minimally manned capacity, but C cargo variant.

this would of allowed a smoth transistion and retention of lots of
abilties.....

all lost now

but the current path although disruptive, is likely better for the
long term.

private industry launchers, cutting costs dramatically.

if private industry can loft people and lower weight cargo theres no
reason they cant provide heavy lift too