Technology that should be killed off?

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
It shouldn't be "manned spaceflight" but more "current shuttle tech/ideas".

We need to use simpler and cheaper surface-to-orbit boosters, and then have some nice orbital tugs waiting (solar sails, ion drives or spinning cable stations)

Is this really possible? I've read a couple Sci Fi novels (Angles by Larry Niven) where it is suggested that NASA space flight is grossly and needlessly expensive and space flight could be achieved much much cheaaper. But I'm not sure if that just makes good Sci Fi or if it is actually true.