Originally Posted by Alex Terrell

John Doe wrote:
Jim Oberg wrote:
It's all but official-Russia and Europe will soon embark on a cooperative
effort to build a next-generation manned space shuttle.

While this is a most interesting development, it is not a shuttle
replacement, by far. It is a soyuz replacement. Falls quite short of
what the shuttle can do. But compared to soyuz, it is a great/huge improvement.

Combined with an Arianne or Proton launcher, than can put 20 tons into
orbit, what can the shuttle do that this can't do?

Only land 14 tons from Space, and there's not much demand for this
service. Oh - and seven crew instead of six.

I personanly think for simple space access, the T-space concept seems
the best.

Alex