[Boatanchors] Yeah; it's OT. So? Re: Space Shuttle

[David Stinson]

I agree: we can't know that the other configurations 
wouldn't have had their own deadly failure modes.
I'm no structural engineer, but some things look
a little "iffy" on their face.
How many of us have seen a shuttle up close?
I have.  It's H U G E.  I think the Apollo 
Command and Service module stack
might just fit in the payload bay.
With a payload, the shuttle would have been 
a massive top-load for a vertical stack.
The side-torque on the stage junction 
during launch would be massive.

Regardless of how it was built, their was one
deadly failure mode that would be common to 
any build:  (mis)managers more interested 
in their own careers than in the crew's lives.

Here's one you'll find interesting:  The Russians copied our 
shuttle (their "Buran"), with some important differences.
For one thing: they decided saving cosmonaut lives 
during a disaster was a real concern, so they designed
systems to do that.  Secondly:  They designed their 
shuttle as a weapons platform and cancelled it when 
they decided dropping nukes from orbit probably 
wasn't such a good idea.  
Their boosters were a much better design as well.
More at:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20664