> 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 ear

> 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 http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Delta_Mission/SEM8XK57ESD_0.html