A car is a bad analogy. The shuttle fleet is more like a fleet of airplanes. The Air force is expecting to fly B52s until they are about 100 years old.
There are airlines still flying DC-3's profitably. The age of the airframe isn't the problem. It's the use to which it has been put.
NASA's current
operating model doesn't require a better/cheaper device, it requires a safe device. A new shuttle design would be risky, (and I don't mean in terms
of passenger safety since the current design isn't particularly safe), so there isn't any rush to replace it.
The Air Force is experimenting with pilotless drones. DC-3s are used for short hops between islands in the Caribbean and very seldom even for that. There was a charter operation out of Las Vegas that used to fly them as a novelty.
Why would a new design be risky?
Gary J Sibio [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~garysibio/
You know you're having a bad day when Elton John rewrites the lyrics to "Candle in the Wind" for you.
