Space Shuttle 'A Mistake'

USA Today reports NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, says
the space shuttle and International Space Station were mistakes:

In a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board, Griffin said NASA lost its way in the 1970s, when the agency ended the Apollo moon missions in favor of developing the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth.

"It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path," Griffin said. "We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can."

[. . .]

Griffin has made clear in previous statements that he regards the shuttle and space station as misguided. He told the Senate earlier this year that the shuttle was "deeply flawed" and that the space station was not worth "the expense, the risk and the difficulty" of flying humans to space.

I still remain impressed by the technological achievement that the shuttle was and still is. Nevertheless, it has not achieved the purpose of providing easier, cheaper and more reliable access to space. What is worse the shuttle and space station have left us marooned on earth with no way to get would be space voyagers more than 520 miles from the earth.

Sadly, NASA's "Apollo On Steroids" approach, while returning us to the moon and possibly getting us to mars, is uninspiring and likewise does not provide cheap reliable access to space.