Soyuz carrying Progress M-12M problem 24 august 2011

[theclashrock09]

Luckily it was an unmanned rocket. Still the Space Shuttle was 100% fully capable of flying itself. What was wrong with it, I am sure these rockets the Russians are using are a lot older than the Shuttle.

[MrShtirlitz]

@theclashrock09

The Soyuz is much more reliable than current state of the Shuttles, Soyuz has 100% track record on manned flights since Shuttle began service. The last Soyuz fatal crash was in 1971 (over 40 years ago , knock-knock), while the last two Shuttle crashes were in 1986 and 2003. Shuttle was still a great program but its time to replace it with something better and safer. For now, Soyuz is more than enough to give time for NASA/Roskosmos to develop next generation space machines.

[elpatriotaLX]

@MrShtirlitz

Well at least with the Soyuz and the rockets from the Apollo program was easier to escape.

The Shuttle though was very reliable and a magnificent piece of unparalleled technology.

I can wait for the Ares rockets to be ready.

[DenisFerrari]

This is the result of having decided to stop the highly expensive - BUT RELIABLE - Space Shuttle Program!

[theclashrock09]

@DenisFerrari I totally agree, NASA have really screwed themselves over this time