> Russia's ability to safely ferry US astronauts into space over the next few years
Nothing to do with each other. The Russian success rate with low to mid earth orbit[1] is much, much better than NASA's[2]. Soyuz is the most reliable, and probably the cheapest, way to get a payload or people into earth orbit[3].
The shuttle was a disaster. Over-engineered, too expensive and not safe. The Russian technology (both capsule and boosters) which was a decade older proved in the long term to be more practical in every way.
And NASA has also had its share of problems with missions to Mars.
[1] only Soyuz 11 failed, cabin depressurization on return, since 1967, out of 112. 40+ years now since the last failure.
[2] 135 launches, two failures, too many delays and other problems to count
Comments
> Russia's ability to safely ferry US astronauts into space over the next few years
Nothing to do with each other. The Russian success rate with low to mid earth orbit[1] is much, much better than NASA's[2]. Soyuz is the most reliable, and probably the cheapest, way to get a payload or people into earth orbit[3].
The shuttle was a disaster. Over-engineered, too expensive and not safe. The Russian technology (both capsule and boosters) which was a decade older proved in the long term to be more practical in every way.
And NASA has also had its share of problems with missions to Mars.
[1] only Soyuz 11 failed, cabin depressurization on return, since 1967, out of 112. 40+ years now since the last failure.
[2] 135 launches, two failures, too many delays and other problems to count
[3] http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Delta_Mission/SEM8XK57ESD_0.html