Chris W wrote:
I was aware of the difficulties in containing the hydrogen, but I was
of the impression that the weight of the container was more than
compensated by the energy to weight ratio of the liquid hydrogen. If
not, why would they use it on the space shuttle?

Actually there was (and still is) considerable debate on the value of using
liquid hydrogen for rockets - with a fair number of people who consider the
decision to use liquid hydrogen for the shuttle as a design mistake. If you
Google past discussions on groups like sci.space.policy or sci.space.tech
you'll find long-running debates on this issue.