Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
And why are the space flight launched from the old Soviet launching location in Kazakhstan? How come Russia is able to run a space program but not the USA? I am not up to speed on this! Should be a thread about this really, it's interesting.
USA had several problems with their space shuttles and found them too complicated and unreliable. They stopped using shuttles, which were their actual technology for the space launching. Now they are developing alternative but it will take some time. On the other hand Russia (almost) always used old-good Soyuz rocket which is simple and reliable and much like first space rockets. So USA now use Russian rockets and facilities for their launches.