American Space Program

also, that launch site they used to launch that isn't even in Russia. it's in south-central Kazakhstan, which has been its own independent country since 1991. Russia leases it from the Kazakh government. it's the only launch site Russia has ever used to launch humans into space

 

this guy put it the same way:

"The space shuttle was designed to be a very heavy payload lifter, and it has performed that job extremely well," says Mark Lewis, a University of Maryland hypersonics expert who recently completed a four-year appointment as chief scientist for the Air Force. "But you don't need to send a Mack truck into space when a Toyota Celica will do."

 

the military has already unveiled their military space shuttle, and they have one in space right now. it's the X-37, an unmanned shuttle controlled from the ground just like those drones we use to go after terrorists

they started developing it in 1999, testing began in 2004, and the first one was launched into space in 2010 (and stayed up there from April to November 2010). they built a second one in 2010 and launched it in March 2011, and it's still up there, meaning that over the last 15 months, the military has had an X-37 overhead for 12 of them (which leads to all kind of speculation regarding what they are doing with them, and whether they played a part in us getting Osama bin laden)

according to Air Force Deputy Undersecretary of Space Programs, Gary Payton, "it's just an updated version of the space shuttle kinds of activities in space."

if you read up on it, it's pretty badass. it uses state-of-the-art-technology that makes the 28-year-old Space Shuttles look like a joke

they have a cargo bay just like the space shuttle, with two cargo doors open just as the shuttle's do. they can put a robot arm in there to do maintence on satellites, they can conduct experiments in there, they can put weapons and spy stuff in there, etc

 

Only if he drinks Vagisil.

 

regarding the International Space Station (ISS), there are only two ways humans have gotten there: via the American Space Shuttle and via the Russian Suyoz -- the Soyez only costs a few 100 million per launch, while the Space Shuttle costs $1.5 billion per launch

the American Space Shuttle has made 36 trips to the ISS, and only 10 of those have carried an American-only crew. 14 Russians have gone up in the American Space Shuttle, on 11 different flights (including each of the first four Space Shuttle missions to the ISS, which carried 1-2 Russians each). The Space Shuttle has also taken 6 Canadians, 5 Japanese, and 9 Europeans (3 Italians, 2 Germans, 2 French, 2 Swedes) to the ISS

the Russian Suyoz has made 27 trips to the ISS, none of which have carried a Russian-only crew. 27 Americans have gone up in the Suyoz, on 22 different flights (81.5% of all Suyoz missions to the ISS have taken 1-2 Americans). The Suyoz has also taken 8 Europeans (3 Italian, 2 Belgians, 1 Dutch, 1 Spaniard) and 2 Canadians, 2 Japanese, 1 South Korean, 1 Brazilian, 1 Malaysian, and 1 South African.

the next 10 scheduled flights to the ISS (from 2011-2013) will all be done by the Russian Soyez, which is much more cost-effective than the Space Shuttle. There will be 1 American on each flight (10 Americans total), 1-2 Russians on each flight (15 Russians total), and also 2 Japanese, 1 Canadian, and 2 Europeans (1 Italian, 1 Dutch).

the American plan is to replace the Space Shuttle with a more cost-effective and efficient space-craft like the Suyoz (and also like the Apollo Command Module that took us to the moon, and also ferried us to our Skylab space station in the 70's). the new project is called the Orion, and we've been working on it since 2005. Last year, Congress passed a law demanding that NASA get it done by 2016 or before. The bill states:

regarding the "missions beyond low-Earth orbit" (which the Space Shuttle wasn't designed to do), we are talking about a replacing the Space Shuttle with a new spacecraft that will, as the law states: "enable human missions beyond low-Earth orbit ultimately leading to Mars," and "will enable missions to deep space destinations such as near-Earth asteroids and Mars" and fulfill the stated goal that: the "long term objective for human exploration of space should be the eventual international exploration of Mars."

also, here is what the NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, told CNN last week:

regarding the International Space Station, the law Congress passed last year states:

you've got to remember that much of the ISS is brand-new. the modules that make up the ISS were launched in 1998 (2 of them), 2000 (1 of them), 2001 (3 of them), 2007 (1 of them), 2008 (3 of them), 2009 (1 of them), 2010 (3 of them), and 2011 (1 of them). another module is scheduled to be added in 2012

also, it's pretty amazing that the ISS has been continuously staffed since 2000 (by 138 Americans, 35 Russians, 12 Europeans, 7 Canadians, 6 Japanese, 1 South Korean, 1 Brazilian, 1 South African, 1 Malaysian)

that's almost 11 years straight of having people living in space -- I'll just assume that at least one American has been on board that whole time, so you could probably say we've had Americans living in space for the last 11 years straight

finally, it's interesting to note that England has nothing to do with any of this. although England is part of the 18-nation European Space Agency (headquartered in Paris), only 10 of the 18 ESA member countries decided to participate in the ISS project, and England was one of the ones that decided not to because they thought it was too expensive. the only Englishman that has ever gone into space did so on a Russian Suyoz, visiting the Russian Mir space station

 

those pics are old pics, which is why it has the "NASA" emblem on it. it was originally a NASA project, which is its own independent federal agency (like the EPA, the CIA, and the US Postal Service). however, when they started testing it around 2004, the Pentagon (US Dept of Defense) apparently liked what they saw and the X-37 project was transferred from NASA to the U.S. Air Force, and is operated by the US Air Force Space Command (headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado -- which is also the headquarters of NORAD and the US Army Space Command)

for more recent pics, here are pics of the first successful X-37, after it landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base (California) late last year, having completed it's first mission in space