The US has three remaining space shuttles (Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis) and nine scheduled flights for the next two years. Our next generation spacecraft will not be ready to launch until 2015. Congress and President-elect Obama's administration will decide to either extend the shuttle program or try to divert more resources into getting the Orion vehicle up and flying.
It seems the motivation to keep the shuttle running is political in nature. Certainly the engineering advantages of flying a 30 year spacecraft are slim. Considering that there have been two catastrophic failures (Challenger and Columbia), it would make sense to push forward with the 21st century vehicle. However, the US would have to rely on Russian rockets to get our astronauts into space beginning in 2010 until Orion is ready.
Stay tuned to Congress in 2009 for the future of the space shuttle. Otherwise, American astronauts may have to hitchhike their way to the International Space Station.
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