Glenn worries U.S. space program at perilous crossroad
William Harwood - CBS News
Fifty years after rocketing into history as the first American in orbit, John Glenn sees America's manned space program at a perilous crossroad. Thanks to political gridlock, an increasingly tight budget and uncertain congressional support, NASA is facing a best-case five- to six-year gap between the end of shuttle operations last year and the debut of new low-cost space taxis the Obama administration hopes will usher in a new era of commercial spaceflight. In the meantime, U.S. astronauts have no choice but to hitch rides to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, relying on America's former Cold War rival for access to low-Earth orbit at more than $60 million a seat.
Fifty years after Glenn flight, U.S. buying rides to space
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