Originally Posted by
Perriwen
Let's be fair, it was a space shuttle PROTOTYPE, not a bonafied space shuttle like all the others because it is NOT like all the others. It had a somewhat different design and never shuttled anything to space. It was as much a space shuttle as the YF-22 is a current in-service F-22. Just because it was going to be turned INTO a real shuttle someday doesn't mean it currently IS a real shuttle.
In other words, it provided the baseline FOR the space shuttle, but it in itself is not the final product. It's a, so to speak, pre-space shuttle.