[FPSPACE] NASA wary of relying on Russia

[LARRY KLAES]

NASA wary of relying on Russia

Moscow soon to be lone carrier of astronauts to the space station

By Marc Kaufman

updated 2:29 a.m. ET, Fri., March. 7, 2008

Tomorrow night, a European spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from French 
Guiana on its maiden voyage to the international space station, giving NASA 
and the world a new way to reach the orbiting laboratory.

For NASA, however, the launch of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle 
(ATV) also highlights a stark reality: In 2 1/2 years, just as the station 
gets fully assembled, the United States will no longer have any spacecraft 
of its own capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the station, in which 
roughly $100 billion is being invested. The three space shuttles will be 
retired by then, because of their high cost and questionable safety, and 
NASA will have nothing ready to replace them until 2015 at the earliest.

Full article here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23512686