I don't think it is that big of a deal in the way a lot of people are making it a big deal. We have been working together with the soviets on many things in the space program since the end of the space race days. Their safety standards these days are on par with ours from what I understand. I think it is ashame that our space program has had a lack of funds for new shuttles to have been in the works over the last several years. If you take a look around, nobody cares anymore. The consesus seems to be, "we have been to space, old news, move on" and that sucks. The general public does not find it as a priority, so it has not been one. The problem with politicians like Bush, it is all about the polls, so I am not surprised that our current big spending government didn't bother to shift enough of their pork in NASAs direction. NASA is extremely expensive, but it is one of those things I think is worth "throwing away" money on.