In a way I think its good that NASA has fallen behind in manned space flight and is using decrepit out-of-date shuttles that weren't designed to make as many flights as they have---shows the world that we aren't alone in the manned space arena... anyone who develops something that can replace the Shuttle, in fact, do better than replace, will own the market for a while... Go Russia!

It has been time to replace the shuttles with something new, and better, for a long long long time...maybe them falling apart constantly will force more funding and research, as well as actual development to go on in NASA..finally...