The Russians and NASA

So now that NASA has grounded the shuttle fleet again, you have to ask whether the whole program was worth it. I mean every time these things land, they need to be completely rebuilt. Two of them have failed with spectacular and tragic consequences. Given that only five of them were ever built, it means that 40% of NASA's shuttles have blown up. Meanwhile, Russia keeps sending up its trusty old Soyuz capsules. I have read that the Russians had some kind of shuttle program in the 1980s, but in the long run, never actually building one seems to have been the smart play. The shuttles maybe sexier and more media-friendly, but they are also expensive and apparently dangerous. I imagine that someone in NASA has got to be looking at some way of returning to using disposable capsules without it appearing to be an admission that the US was wrong with the shuttle program all along.