On 2 Jan 2004 16:39:35 GMT, Andrew Gray wrote:

The cheapest concievable way to design and provide something which is
essentially a new copy of what we currently have would, presumably, be
to set up a New Shuttle Office within NASA, get it to produce lots of
new documentation, and then buy the existing three orbiters from another
part of NASA. For added points, since this process will take about a
year of marking time, you could repaint them and do up the upholstery
while you wait.

LOL- we've been doing this kind of "smoke and mirrors" thing with the
budget for years. You may have to add some dingleballs around the
windows and an 8-track deck to fool the majority of us, though

Dale