This would normally be another rant, but it's late and I'm tired so it's going to be short.
Anyway. I was just reading about the Soviet Space Battlestation Skif, which was the Soviet Union's response to Reagan's Star Wars program. What's interesting about it isn't the concept of space-based warfare so much as the method that was to be used to put it in to orbit: the Energia booster rocket, the same vehicle used on the Buran space shuttle.
Why is it interesting? Because that's what the Space Transport System is supposed to be (as I understand it) - a booster platform to loft things in to space. The Shuttle is just something that gets tacked on to the side of it. In all of the talk of what to do about the Shuttle, maybe it's worth noting that the STS is still a nice way to put lots of things into space; not just the Shuttle.
One of the concerns about the early termination of the Shuttle program is what to do with the ISS; well, why not strip the life support equipment out of one of the Shuttles and make it a fully automated box that just goes in to orbit? The Soviets did it with the Buran, and it seemed to be able to get up and down without incident (the problems with the Buran all involved what happened once it was on the ground). With life support equipment removed from the Shuttle, heavier cargo could be lifted as well. And when it's time for people to go to and from the ISS, a crew module could be fit in the cargo bay of the Shuttle. It might seem odd having the Shuttle crew as passengers, but why not? After all, the Shuttle wasn't supposed to be the glamorous part.
Just a thought. I'm off to bed.