Is the US Out of the ISS?

Uh, dosen't the ESA have the Jules verne? and why don't they just have a smooth transition from shuttle to orion? gradually start replacing shuttle missions instead of going without space travel for four years. NASA doesn't make very good decisions.
Dustin H

The reason theres no smooth transition from the space shuttle to the orion space vehicle is because 1) niether the Orion or the Ares launch vehicle (orions launch system) are ready for actual missons now, won't be ready by the time of the shuttles retirement date of 2010, and probably won't be ready by their proposed date of 2014 (an optimistic estimate). 2)NASA is already incredibly underfunded, and the fact that they are currently able to maintain there aging equipment and fund new missions is a feat all its own. But current shuttle missions average about $1 billion per launch. The idea that the Orion and a brand new launch platform could be operational anywhere near the shuttles retirement date is both incredibly expensive and unrealistic.

In a perfect world where politicians actually know how to allocate tax payer dollars the orion project would have been funded much earlier and construction, testing and deployment of the vehicle would have been timed to coincide with the retirement of the space shuttle, rather than having to go at least 6 years without any US based launch system to take us to the space station that was funded more by the US than anyother participating country.

One other thing, if I remember correctly the Jules Verne is a suuply ship, not suited to carrying (live) passengers. AS it stands its simply an automated supply vessel, and even so, its maintained by the ESA not USA, and could create an issue similar to the one about using Russian Soyuz craft. The truth is, we should have our own nationally based launch system by the time the shuttle retires, eliminating our dependence on launch vehicles controlled by forgein powers.

Going with paul on this one. As for the perfect world of politics, we can only dream....
I also have to say that even though people are now all against Russia for what happend with Georgia, I still believe that the soviets are not going to do anything stupid with the ISS. Why? Because they dont need to. What can they do ? Put nuclear warheads ? They already have that in their satelites... They dont need a huge space station that attracks attention to carry their stuff.
- DiGGY

I am hoping that private space companies will be able and ready to transport people into space within the next 5 years.

Companies like Virgin Galactic may be able to do the space shuttle's job much more efficiently and much cheaper.

This is what will happen soon and our government knows this. The Space shuttle is getting old and like I read above its equipment is dangerously old.

Don/t worry it won't take much longer now for space to be open to the general public. BLAST OFF!

THE BY LINE IS [By Stuart Fox]
SIR RESPECTFULLY, YOU NEED TO CHECK YOUR GRAMMAR AND SPELLING. ITS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT A WRITER MAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GRAMMATICAL ERRORS LIKE THIS. THIS READS: "The International Space Station [ maybe not be ] international for much longer. According to [ an ] NASA email" COME ON DUDE... WHERE WERE YOU DURING YOUR THIRD GRADE ENGLISH CLASS?? YOU WORK FOR POP-SCI AND THERE IS NO EXCUSE TO SEE AND READ THESE ERRORS.

ALSO I LOVED THE COMMENT BY Strangedayz26!!!!!!
COMMERCIAL ENDEAVORS ARE GOING TO GO CRAZY FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO BLAST NASA AWAY WITH COMMERCIAL FUNDING!! I CANT WAIT... DUDE YOU ARE MORE THAN RIGHT ON THIS ONE!!! WHO KNOWS?? WALMART AND STARBUCKS MIGHT BE UP THERE BEFORE NASA RETURNS!!

ROD GOUIN AVIATION MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN FAA DOT #47620801AP