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On 6/11/2024 10:58 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

> ISTR at least one Morton Thiokol engineer was begging them not to launch 
> with it so cold but was over ruled by more senior people in the end.
> 
> Rocket launches and landings are intrinsically dangerous. On this I am 
> inclined to agree with JL - unless and until we find something that our 
> robotic and AI kit cannot do we shouldn't be sending people into space.
> 
> It was the *only* way to explore the moon back in 1969 but not any more...
> 

The shuttle was a dual-use vehicle, it could've made a formidable weapon 
in a pinch. The Soviets thought so, at least.

The large crossrange from the delta wings made once-around space bomber 
missions north from Vandenburg feasible, though IIRC they never launched 
from there.

The DOD didn't "force" the delta wings, exactly, crossrange was a desire 
of theirs that NASA eventually came around to as beneficial in general, 
it made another abort mode possible and simplified design 
calculations/simulations to be tractable with the tech available at the 
time.

But it's likely if they couldn't have come to a path of convergent 
evolution then the project wouldn't have gone forward at all.