Idea to test curvature of Earth:

It must also be noted that the shuttle was a reusable rocket system too, just a different design.

Although I heard somewhere that refurbishing the engines after each flight cost more than making new ones. 🙂

Originally posted by sonhouse
I wonder what the average success to rocket launch failures are average for the industry?

I personally think NASA should get out of the rocket business altogether and let commercial suppliers compete for it. NASA should concentrate on the more specialised stuff such as satellites and landers.