No, the initial fleet of shuttles consisted of Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis. The last two and Columbia (before the accident) were joined by Endeavour, which rolled off the assembly line in '92. Why they don't use the newest of the shuttles is beyond me.
As for continuing to go up, I will always hope they at least send satellites up there so we can keep exploring and discovering new things about the galaxy, but I'm not sure about manned missions anymore, at least for now. There have been a lot of benefits that came from the space programs, but they need to reconsider if all of this is really worth it right now. One scrubbed launch costs over $600K, which can buy a lot of food and medication for people here on Earth.
Last edited by Mokona; 07-28-2005 at 12:14 AM..
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