Desensitization

I had a thought regarding the latest space shuttle launch and the debris that was clearly seen falling off of the shuttle. I know NASA said they are putting ALL FUTURE launches on hold till the figure out things. COULD this be the goverments way of introducing much better methods of space travel and orbital missions to the public in kinda of a progressive manner? How many years now have NASA 'publicly' been going on space missions in the standard shuttle? I mean, we have all heard of the top secret planes supposedly that are out there with the high tech jet engines that are said to be able to travel above Mach 8 or even have neutral gravity properties.

Not sure if this should be in the Aircraft Projects bit, and Im not 100% sure what your question is precisely, but consider this:

1. The shuttle is now 25 years old.
2. The shuttle never fulfilled its mission criteria
3. The shuttle never fulfilled its costings budget

Basically, for all its coolness factor, the shuttle is a dismal failure. It was supposed to bring the cost of space travel down massively, instead its still 10 times more expensive than a 35 year old Russian vehicle per launch.

Personally, I dont believe that the US government has much beyond the F-22 tech, certainly no 'top secret space craft' or hypersonic airplanes in normal usage. The next gen space craft will bne done in the standard way.