"nmp" wrote in message
news
Op Sat, 20 Aug 2005 17:58:58 +0200, schreef Rene Altena:

[snip quoted stuff]

While this is a most interesting development, it is not a shuttle
replacement, by far.

It may not be an STS replacement, but a shuttle it surely is.

Only if you think that the word "shuttle" means any partially reusable
vehicle that goes into and returns from orbit. That's not a definition
in any dictionary of which I'm aware.

The Shuttle is called 'Shuttle' because it is a Shuttle-service:
up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down etc. etc.

So this European-Russian spacecraft is a shuttle.

Right, exactly what I meant

And as you surely know, Rene, in the Netherlands we also call a spacecraft
like this (including STS) a "ruimteveer", meaning Space Ferry.

Jazeker!

Rene