From: nospam@127.0.0.1   
      
   I'd love to see them shoehorn in the flight software for a pointless   
   trip to the moon. Pointless because, 1) It ain't landing on the moon,   
   and 2) it probably ain't carrying much cargo in lieu of fuel.   
      
   Shuttle was purpose built for LEO operation only. In fact, as originally   
   intended for military payloads, it acted primary as a reusable 2nd stage   
   for the Centaur upper-stage. Which post-Challenger accident, never flew   
   on Shuttle, but was adapted to the Titan IV.   
      
   Waving the re-usability flag means little when the cost to refurbish per   
   flight isn't better than or worse than an ELV. SpaceX got us off that   
   curve thank goodness.   
      
   Dave   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)