The Space Shuttle was a Mistake
The NASA administrator is admitting that The space shuttle was a mistake. Nice to find this out $150 billion and 14 lives later. Time to park this thing in the museum of bad 70's engineering right next to the ford pinto. (Housed in a building with dreadful 70s architecture, of course.)
The problem is that the shuttle was built by committee to serve multiple masters. Is it a passenger vehicle? Is it a cargo vehicle? Its both. The overwhelming concern with getting people into space is safety. The concern with getting stuff into space is cost. The shuttle was supposed to be safe and cheap. It turned out to be neither.
The design geniuses at Apple can tell you all about the success of convergence products.