When considering AHs where the US space program enjoys a more fertile post-Apollo period, space shuttles (of any sort) are generally avoided. And yet, when reading the history of the space shuttle's development, there seem to be plenty of lost opportunities even after NASA had committed to having a shuttle program. From opportunities to secure just a little more funding from the Nixon administration, to opportunities to go with a smaller shuttle or to use a Saturn 1C stage in place of the solids used in OTL. This got me thinking: how different would NASA and the shuttle program be if several of those small opportunities compounded on each other? Is it possible for NASA to have some sort of shuttle and also (for example) keep the skylab program going into the mid-80s, giving the shuttle an actual space station to serve right from the start? Is it possible to avoid the near-stasis of the OTL STS package and have the shuttle receiving the continuous upgrades originally envisaged for it?
In short, what do people think is the plausible best case scenario for the US space program with a PoD after 1970 and a space shuttle (even a mini shuttle) as part of that program?
fasquardon