"What part of "test' flight is not understood? She wont fly again until this new data is processed and acted upon. thats the way it works."
E X A C T L Y !
The STS has yet to be deemed "operational" for that reason. This is akin to flight test failures and standowns a la military aircraft. But since the potential failures are so spectacular ans so very PUBLIC, the critics bay like restless hounds.
A lot of people don't realize that the often praised Russian space program has been a great deal more deadly. But then again, they launch and land their systems on the nearly-deserted tundra under some secrecy. To this day.
We launch and land the Shuttle off of a resort coast down the road from freeking Disney! The wailing and gnashing of teeth is nauseating.
Yeah, but military aircraft don't take a quarter of a century to develop. That's because most military aircraft are designed by engineers not by the democratic process like the shuttle was.
And it isn't so much about loss of life as it is about cost and reliability.