[Arkie2]

TIME's Chris Taylor writes, "This year, more than four decades after Shepard's flight, only two Americans have made the jump into space from U.S. soil -

What exactly does this sentence mean?

[Rebel_Ace]

"TIME's Chris Taylor writes, "This year, more than four decades after Shepard's flight, only two Americans have made the jump into space from U.S. soil -
What exactly does this sentence mean?"

It means that the ONLY Manned space flights launched from the U.S. in 2004 were the two X-Prize flights conducted by Rutan and his crew. Not NASA. Not the gub'mint. Privately funded flights.

[af_vet_rr]

What exactly does this sentence mean?

All other Americans launched into space in 2004 were launched by the Russians (NASA Astronauts).

I didn't catch it at first, but then I thought about it - the Shuttle is inoperative at this point. Rutan and Co. are the only Americans actively going into and out of space from U.S. soil (actually the only people period, that are going into and out of space from U.S. soil this year).