All space vehicles use staging; the space shuttle's are just on the side. NASA
also made the Saturn 5, don't forget. The space shuttle is a poor investment
but an incredibly high-performance vehicle and launch system. It can lift
almost as much as the Saturn 5 (including the orbiter) -- way more than any
Russian vehicle. :)
Richard
Ian Mallett wrote:
hmmm.
I would not define the space shuttle as a space ship because it requires
an external fuel tank and two extra rockets to get into space. In fact,
all of NASA's creations, then have not been rockets because they cannot
travel to and from space without incredible difficulty and sacrifice of
parts.