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Originally Posted by crucifissio
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I love NASA, and loved the Space Shuttle Program. That being said though, when the budget to Nasa was cut and the Shuttle program was shut down, it was kind of a good thing. It has let NASA turn to pure research which is what it does best, and it has opened the floodgates for private space travel such as Space X, Virgin Galactic, and hopefully soon more.
The Shuttle program wasn't crap - it was definitely advanced for its time. It was the first "reusable" spacecraft, which anyone will tell you is a key requirement for cheaper, extended, travel to orbit and beyond.
It has also been a boon to Russia as you pointed out, but may even mean it is now cheaper for the US to get payloads up there.