I'm all for space exploration. I think it's great.
But I do not think that the STS is a viable system.
1. The more complicated a system is, and the more components it has, the greater the chance of errors.. There are over 700 components that are Criticality 1 meaning if they fail the vehicle and the crew will be lost. The solid rocket booster seals and the tiles are two of those.
2. During launch and re-entry the crew cannot be rescued.
Like Ron said...no system is perfect. And when you have a non-perfect system with no way to rescue the crew, you're gonna lose crews. We've already lost two crews. We will lose more. The odds are unavoidable.
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