Crippen said he would not have Stopped program! Most Experts would not Either!

No, Crippen said, he wouldn't have stopped the program.

While the shuttles now are parked at museums, the 15-year-old International Space Station continues to circle the earth, and astronauts continue to be ferried to and from it. What irks Crippen is that America pays the Russians for the ride — and to the tune of about $75 million per fare.

"We should have kept it going until we had some other way to put people in space," Crippen said. "Those ships could have kept flying. They almost rebuilt them as new every time they flew them."

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