subject to falling ice / foam, resulting in the loss of seven astronauts was a horrible idea. Then add in the fact that there was no way to abort / eject the crew compartment in the event of a 'major malfunction', which also resulted in the deaths of seven astronauts.

And just for fun, consider that the Saturn V could throw a tremendous amount of mass to the moon, whereas the shuttle was restricted to low earth orbit.

I'm glad to see the shuttle retired and in museums. Looking forward to the next big thing, which I'm willing to bet will be a "gumdrop shaped capsule" like Apollo.