Britain invented the space shuttle in the 1960s

[AndyDT]

“We started by looking at things which were Concorde-ish in nature,” Smith recalled, “and went on from there to high speed aircraft which would travel at Mach 12 [12 times the speed of sound]... We gradually realised that we could go from air-breathers, which would stay in the earth’s atmosphere, into space.”

The design work for MUSTARD was completed in 1964 and 1965, and the following year, in a lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society, Lord Caldecote, BAC’s deputy managing director and chairman of its guided weapons branch, described a fully recoverable multi-stage aerospace vehicle which could put Western Europe into the space age within 10 to 15 years.

The design was a three-stage reusable aircraft, consisting of three similar modules in the form of crewed, delta-winged vehicles which could be stacked together and launched as a single unit. Two of the units would act as boosters to launch the third into orbit, feeding any excess fuel to the unit which was to become the spacecraft, before separating and returning to earth as normal aircraft. After placing a payload weighing as much as 5,000lb into orbit, the third unit would return to earth in a similar fashion.

MUSTARD was regarded as a suitable project for joint development by European aerospace companies, with a cost estimated to be around “20 to 30 times cheaper” than that of the expendable rocket launch systems of the time. Unfortunately, as with so many other British inventions, the government of the day decided not to proceed. About three years after MUSTARD was cancelled, the Americans became interested in a reusable aircraft.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/9649596/Tom-Smith.html

Here's what Wikipedia says:

The project started life as the English Electric Mustard. For one year, collaborative work was done at Edwards Air Base. Once this collaborative work was over, three American prototype similar-looking aircraft apppeared at Edwards Air Base. The Space Shuttle would later have a comparative design, and function.

Sounds like the supersonic project all over again.

[black_biff_stadler]

[snapple]

Andy, i understand your frustration. It's hard to find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. You'll find one someday. But, you don't need to ask us to analyze each girl you date for you.

[El Barto]

So it's y'alls fault, eh?  The space shuttle program was a dumb move for us.  We should have followed the Rooskies and gone with cheap single use rockets.

[DebraKadabra]

Andy, i understand your frustration. It's hard to find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. You'll find one someday. But, you don't need to ask us to analyze each girl you date for you.

OMG

[rumborak]

What's Britain again? Is that where you have the layover on the way to the EU?

[SeRoX]

Andy, i understand your frustration. It's hard to find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. You'll find one someday. But, you don't need to ask us to analyze each girl you date for you.

 

[TempusVox]

"We couldn't do the space race....We had no money. Rationing didn't stop till the year...umm...I still haven't even lived that long. We didn't have any money. You were getting space rockets tested- a cat, a dog, a fish, a  monkey up into space....We didn't have enough money to put a man in a tracksuit up a ladder!               

I would've been there - "Go, man!"

"I'm going, I'm going, 'ang on."                 

"Just hang on to the ladder!"                   

"Hello, Swindon... I am here. Swindon, can you hear me?"
               
"Swindon here. We're monitoring you on our instruments....."

"Swindon, I'm nearly at the moon. Actually, that's an understatement. Have you got a bit more ladder? We're not quite at the moon yet...but I can see right over
the top of the houses. Fantastic!""

~ Eddie Izzard.   

[Dimitrius]

So?

[Orbert]

"Its awesome!"

"What, like a hot dog?"

[Ravenheart]

WAKE UP SHEEPLE

[DebraKadabra]

"We couldn't do the space race....We had no money. Rationing didn't stop till the year...umm...I still haven't even lived that long. We didn't have any money. You were getting space rockets tested- a cat, a dog, a fish, a  monkey up into space....We didn't have enough money to put a man in a tracksuit up a ladder!               

I would've been there - "Go, man!"

"I'm going, I'm going, 'ang on."                 

"Just hang on to the ladder!"                   

"Hello, Swindon... I am here. Swindon, can you hear me?"
               
"Swindon here. We're monitoring you on our instruments....."

"Swindon, I'm nearly at the moon. Actually, that's an understatement. Have you got a bit more ladder? We're not quite at the moon yet...but I can see right over
the top of the houses. Fantastic!""

~ Eddie Izzard.   

 
  Eddie Izzard

[Super Dude]

"We couldn't do the space race....We had no money. Rationing didn't stop till the year...umm...I still haven't even lived that long. We didn't have any money. You were getting space rockets tested- a cat, a dog, a fish, a  monkey up into space....We didn't have enough money to put a man in a tracksuit up a ladder!               

I would've been there - "Go, man!"

"I'm going, I'm going, 'ang on."                 

"Just hang on to the ladder!"                   

"Hello, Swindon... I am here. Swindon, can you hear me?"
               
"Swindon here. We're monitoring you on our instruments; we have you on a tuba."

"Swindon, I'm nearly at the moon. Actually, that's an understatement. Have you got a bit more ladder? We're not quite at the moon yet...but I can see right over
the top of the houses. Fantastic!""

~ Eddie Izzard.   

FTFY

I love that show. I haven't seen all of them, but I think that's his best.

[GuineaPig]

Hasn't he already made a thread on this exact subject?

[XJDenton]

What's Britain again? Is that where you have the layover on the way to the EU?

No, it's where the cider is at.

So it's y'alls fault, eh?  The space shuttle program was a dumb move for us.  We should have followed the Rooskies and gone with cheap single use rockets.

Its not for a lack of trying the Ruskies didnt have their own shuttle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29