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Comment by Ankaios | Hacker News Reader

If I had a spare billion bucks laying around when the shuttle program ended, I thought it would been fun to actually try out an RTLS. Tie up the necessary loose ends on the autopilot, stack up an empty shuttle, invite a lot of people, and let it go. No real use to it, but it would have been a great "Hey y'all, watch this" moment.

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I get images of Topgears Renault Robin space shuttle clone in my head. While obviously not hitting the heights the shuttle can it was an impressive endeavor that might satisfy your curiosity; http://youtu.be/pJdrlWR-yFM

A classic TG moment. I still meet people that think that was real.

Top Gear (along with Fox News), hold the dubious honour of having had to defend themselves in court for their right to lie in segments presented as factual reporting. This is probably part of the reason why they moved away from car reviews and onto doing stunts.

They may have faked the explosion at the end, and obviously their explanation is total nonsense, but the launch looks pretty authentic, see this alternate angle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoMKy043j_I

It's not? Seriously I worked NASA and that episode was entirely plausible (except for the explosion after effects), and not as expensive as other things Top Gear has done. Why are you saying it was faked?

Reliant Robin, not Renault. The French have nothing to do with it, you'll upset the proud Englishmen.

No offense but I prefer the current situation of space shuttles in museums :)

Yeah, me too. Luckily I didn't have that billion to blow on it. :)

Hold my beer

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