Why is the Space Shuttle being retired?

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

How much would it cost to fly 3 flights per year (1 fight per year per shuttle) in order to maintain the fleet, $5B/year?  Isn’t the inspiration the shuttle provides Americans and its school children worth $5B/year?  Plus the US gets the added benefit of maintaining a manned flight capability, and maintaining the accompanying knowledge base (which otherwise would quickly be dispersed), and an insurance policy to mitigate the risk of Russia cutting off US access to the ISS.

It’s one thing to cancel the Ares-Orion program, but canceling both the Ares-Orion and the Shuttle programs seems self-destructive.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Why haven't the updated 1981 technology?

actually, aside from the glass cockpit, it's more like 1970 technology.  The only approach that has really worked is setting a goal and a firm deadline.  Space systems can NOT be started up at the flip of a switch.  The on again off again space policies of each administration doesn't allow for completion of a goal.

If a president would set a goal and a timeline (a la JFK) and integrate it into the classroom (a la 1985's Teacher in Space Program) and mandate part of curriculum to be based off of it....then we could inspire our children in math and science.

Heck, even now, current resources are being wasted.  There should be dedicated resources on the ISS being using to integrate high school curriculum and projects and provide real world data and analysis capability.  A lot of the inspirational potential is going to waste.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

It turned out to be more expensive than they thought. The reusable shuttle does not save the money they thought it would.

yes, it is a complete failure in meeting its cost savings goals.  And it is the most dangerous space vehicle that has ever flown.  But it's capabilities are currently unmatched.   Not to mention it has a 5-star coolness factor.

I don't see why the ET can't be redesigned to have foam insulation on the inside of the upper portion of the tank adjacent to the shuttle.

NASA does a poor job in showing off the coolocity of the Space Shuttle.  NASATV needs to spend much more air time showing vehicle assembly:

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

So, we should spend $5B annually to have something that you think is "cool"? You sound really fiscally responsible.

yeah, but unlike Obama's stimulus, most of NASA's budget goes into paying salaries of skilled workers.  The cost of materials for NASA is a trivial percentage of NASA's expense (not that they dont' spend a lot of money on hardware, its just that the hardware is expensive because of the number of highly skilled man-hours it takes to produce it).  So a lot of the $5billion comes back to the government in the form of tax revenue.

And don't underestimate the value of coolness if it is promoted properly: NASA should also spend money (say $10M/year) on writing space shuttle/ISS simulation software that runs as a free online app with real-time data feeds so that schools could develop space simulation clubs for interested students...each school should be able to have its own fulltime "Space Camps".  And with the free on-line app and prewritten program guides written by NASA, all a school would need are computers and internet access (which many already have).  Kids should be allowed to log-on from home in order to follow a mission while school isn't in session.  

There is so much potential leverage of existing expenditures that is wasted.