Congress Cheaped out the Shuttle

When the Shuttle was first being designed it was going to take off and land on a runway. Congress cut the assist vehicle that would carry the shuttle to a high altitude before it would take off on it's own power. This would have gotten rid of the booster launch rockets which one failed burning a hole in a O-ring and causing the external fuel tank to explode. It would have got rid of falling foam off the external fuel tank which damaged the leading edge of the Shuttle's wing causing the Shuttle to burn up on re-entry. They also had the NASA administration pushing for more launches by then which gave up on safety and they didn't listen to the engineers. That lift vehicle which sort of was like a 747 that moves the Shuttle from the other landing spots to Kennedy is sort of the idea how it works except it would take it to the edge of space before the Shuttle would start it's own engines to get the rest of the way into low earth orbit. There were congress men, persons that wanted to see rockets and power of a lift off and not a plane running down the runway so they vetoed that design. That design would make it safer for everyone on the Shuttle since the rockets used are just controlled explosions. Congress chose a 800 year old design over something new because it didn't have fire and flames and lots of smoke and sound of power. It's sad how people who know nothing about science have input on science only to screw things up. Taking off and landing horizontally with a reusable design would have been the way to go but because of the cut back design it ended up costing more to run then the original design which would have cost more to begin with but wouldn't explode on the deck. If you look at the X series of aerospace planes they were dropped from a B-52 high off the earth. That's how the Shuttle was designed originally but you can't sit in bleachers and watch a take off so congress didn't like that, it wasn't impressive although safer and cheaper in the long run then what we ended up with. It's too bad there are such backwards people that get elected to congress and make laws about things they know nothing about. Some of them don't believe anything that scientist tell them and that's why the United States if the only country where climate science is a political debate. When businesses can buy off congress and senate nothing gets done right. That's why republicans defend tax breaks for the super rich where they make billions and pay no taxes.