<p>Hmmm.... It seems that generally after reaching the end of its mechanical life a ship is decommissioned by taking everything from it and then sinking it somewhere off the coast where it won't harm the local animal and plant life.
Perhaps the shuttles should be BURIED in space....to accomplish this their last few missions could entail them working only in space and NEVER returning. Eventually they could be incorporated into the IIS as extra modules or movable in orbit workhorses. Perhaps moving people from one ship to another or even from the IIS to a ship. In this case they really would be Shuttles.</p>
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As an addition to this since nothing remains of our earlier earth to space vehiles we really should keep one of these ships for posterity as a museum or something. It would be a disgrace to the Kenneday-esque ideals if the US government takes them apart and dumps them in the arizona desert.
It does no good to have more space junk, especially the size of the shuttle.Leave them on Earth for historical purposes, or at most recycling.FWIW, ithere is one shuttle in a museum state; The Enterprise, which BTW, never has flown.
Some components of the shuttle could be used, but not the used parts- safer and cheaper in the long run to build new ones. The shuttle represents the best of 1970s thinking, and proves that old machines can be upgraded well past their original design parameters. (BTW the part that orbits, the part that looks like an airplane, is called the "orbiter." The entire assembly of orbiter, fuel tank, and solid rocket boosters is the "Shuttle" or "STS.")But it's not economically sound to continue to invest in old tech. We need at least two completely new systems- a passenger-carrying "Spaceliner" and a "heavy-lifter" cargo system. A "space truck" that stays in orbit, possibly parked at the ISS, might also be useful for carrying out satellite retrival and repair- I have in mind something that would look like an Apollo CSM with robot arms.