> The first two shuttles were only designed around a crew of 2 where this design made more sense.
Only the first I think, unless you're count Enterprise (which couldn't go to space.) Challenger (the second orbit-capable shuttle) never flew with less than four crew.
Incidentally, the ejection seats of questionable worth in Columbia weren't without NASA precedent; the Gemini program also used ejection seats which similarly had a pretty narrow window of usefulness at best. One of my favorite pictures ever is this shot of the Gemini capsule with both hatches open, giving a pretty clear view of how the seats would have worked: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Armstron...
Only the first I think, unless you're count Enterprise (which couldn't go to space.) Challenger (the second orbit-capable shuttle) never flew with less than four crew.
Incidentally, the ejection seats of questionable worth in Columbia weren't without NASA precedent; the Gemini program also used ejection seats which similarly had a pretty narrow window of usefulness at best. One of my favorite pictures ever is this shot of the Gemini capsule with both hatches open, giving a pretty clear view of how the seats would have worked: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Armstron...