It is but one illustration of the complexity of space shuttles, and the dilemmas that complexity creates.
....
The reason, say experts and analysts, emerged from the first concepts of the shuttle, which were not practical but fantastic. It should be reusable. It should fly like a plane on reentry. It should carry huge payloads - such as satellites and pieces of space stations.
"It was given so many conflicting requirements that it wasn't going to be able to reach any of them," says Howard McCurdy, a NASA historian.
The technology to do it did not exist. So the shuttle emerged as a compromise, an inordinately complex machine that fulfilled all the functions adequately, but none perfectly.
