/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12752791
Yes

>>10616304
Well for the US the shuttle gap is an explanation for why a lot of promising space projects never flew when they were newly minted, I know less about Russia but a lot of it seems to be to do with serious economic constriction greatly limiting the amount of investment in brand new stuff and preference for whatever already works. It's definitely not that we can't develop one, hell the US and US companies are developing at least two currently, the X-37 and Cockheed Memetin's Dreamchaser, the Venturestar literally could have been greenlit any time in the past couple of years since it was practically done if we wanted a full sized spaceplane, Kliper as well probably could have flown already if it weren't for succession and budget constraint at Energia and Buran actually did fly in a flawless test run but was subsequently shelved and left literally to rot.

So we definitely CAN develop lifting body space vehicles, they've just had a very bad run of luck from funding to construction to politicking and on, and on, and on. Wing boyes have just been played a bad hand of cards so far. That being said, the benefits of what is essentially a tiny delta can't be understated for future designs, it allows for a much more gentle and thus safer reentry and allows the vehicle to be reused more with less refurbishment, if I had to design a modern capsule I'd probably favor a small wing.