why did NASA retire the space shuttle?
The space shuttle program was a dog from the beginning. It never lived up to the claims by which it was sold to the USA people. It was supposed to be able to support space missions, reenter, and take off again at intervals only a week apart. In testing during the 1970s it was dragged around piggyback on an airplane. Even then, at normal aviation speed, its heat-resistant tiles came unglued and fell off. The problem was never solved, only treated enough to get a few missions to squeak by. The lead contractor on the job was Boeing. The shuttle succeeded at one thing. It kept a lot of Boeing people – engineers, machinists, clerks, etc. – from having to go out and get real jobs. Aerospace contract work pays richly for very little work. Boeing was never interested in supporting the shuttle after it was built. NASA employees had to shop old electronic parts on ebay. Those shuttles that were not lost were maintained, in part, through cannibalization and reconsolidation of components. With it
