Deja vu? Shuttle? (Score 1)

Long time lurker, had to create an account to post on this one. Wasn't this the whole premise behind the space shuttle...a reusable craft to ferry people to/from the ISS? And didn't this fail because of the extreme abuse the shuttle suffered upon re-entering the atmosphere? And unless he's planning on mining for fuel on Mars, there is going to be the cost of ferrying the fuel to Mars in the first place, regardless of whether or not you are on that ferry...