John Glenn, the space pioneer and former Democratic senator, was so bothered by the prospect of a space gap that he personally pleaded with Obama last year to keep the shuttle program going until a replacement system was ready. After listening to Glenn's appeal in a 40-minute meeting at the White House, the president said, "We just don't have the money to do it," Glenn recalls. He says he worries that, once the U.S. is a fully dependent space client, Russia will use its advantage to up the price. "I think it was very short-sighted," Glenn says. "We're throwing away the shuttle, which is the most complex vehicle ever put together by human beings. We're saying that we're putting complete reliance on the Soyuz, at enormous expense, to get our people back and forth from space. And you know, good and well, when they renegotiate that the next time around, it's going to be a lot more money."
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