Space without U.S.

In a leaked e-mail to his top advisers, NASA chief Michael Griffin vents all the frustrations he's been feeling over the comically mishandled U.S. space program. Despite the titillating "leak" description, there's nothing too shocking or even surprising here. NASA's budget has been severely limited, the space shuttle is due to retire years before its replacement makes it off the ground, and the growing megalomania of the Russian government may make it difficult for congress to approve the payments needed to buy U.S. astronaut seats on future Russian space flights. All valid complaints, but instead of pushing to extend shuttle flights as Griffin seems to want to do, why not push to build the shuttle replacement sooner? If another one of those rickety old gliders blows up, there won't be a U.S. space program to complain about. More details here.