Originally Posted by Eric5273

Ummm....correct me if I am wrong, but except for a very small period in the late 1960s (present included), the Russian space program has always been way more advanced than ours. Even when we were launching the Apollo missions to the moon, we were still landing in a capsule in the ocean with parachutes, while the Russians always landed on the ground a la the space shuttle.

The Russians had their first space station (MIR) in orbit in 1982, and most of the technology of the current international space station, including the main 2 large modules, was built by the Russian space program. While we continue to have these problems the last few years of not being able to launch a shuttle without problems, the Russians continue to launch 4-5 Soyuz missions each year, and under an arrangement the last 5 years, the US government has been paying Russia $21 million each way for American astronauts to ride to and from the Space Station on the Soyuz crafts.