[Alberta's Child]

All I know is that NASA ended the U.S. space shuttle program after 50% of its shuttle fleet suffered catastrophic failures with a total loss of crew members. The U.S. is now in an ignominious position where we must rely on the Russians to send our astronauts to the International Space Station.

With an embarrassing track record like that, I don’t think we are in a position to criticize any other country over their military hardware failures.

[Amberdawn]

Sadly, problems with the space shuttles were well known, i.e., O-rings and tiles. They launched anyway due to political pressures. There were those who criticized the whole program, feeling that money was being wasted on floating around in space.