Some people here obviously believe that since the shuttle was not 100% safe that it should not have ever flown; that anything to do with manned space flight is a waste of money; that somehow unmanned drones should be used to replace far cheaper unmanned resupply missions to the ISS.
We’ve seen all these arguments before - they basically boil down to a group of people so ingrown staring down their lint filled navels that they rival fundamental Islamists in their fervent dislike of anything which contradicts what they believe should exist; its their religion.
Space flight is never 100% safe, but man-rated flight vehicles must stand up to a level of reliability that unmanned vehicles are not required to meet.
Statistically, the space shuttle reliability is very poor for a man-rated system. Out of 135 flights, 2 catastrophic failures. That's a reliability of 98.5%, which is ok for launching hardware (insurance will cover that), but for man-rated...would you like to fly a vehicle that you know 1 out of every 60-70 flight would kill you and your crew?
The shuttle was sexy, and it was a major incentive in my own career motivations and decisions. But in hindsight it tried to do too much (by Buck Rogers Air Force requirements). It had to be man rated with life support for a large crew for up to two weeks, it had to be a heavy lift vehicle, and it had to be reusable. We have been reminded by the accidents that the hardware can be delivered in heavy lift vehicles separately with no risk to crew, while a more manageable crew vehicle can handle the task of getting the crew to and from heavy hardware or station without the added risk of being strapped to the side of a hydrogen bomb with no reliable abort system.
The problem with the shuttle is it was a low earth orbit vehicle only. You were not going to the moon or mars with it or anywhere else.
If there was going to be a two or three year gap between the shuttle and Orion no problem, but a decades gap? If NASA wants to be relevant they need to make some hard decisions and machete off a ton of bureaucracy and bloat and get serious about testing and making Orion operational. Will there be risk with Orion, absolutely but not as much as the shuttle where we lost a crew during launch and re-entry because of vehicle failure.
The capsule type ships Mercury, Gemini and Apollo worked well and should continue working fine in Orion. That being said private industry should be thinking outside the box about other designs as well.