NASA to The Rescue (NOT)

     You may have read about the problem with a Russian Mars Probe. It launched just fine from Earth, but failed to fire its rockets to head to the Red Planet. Instead, it's orbiting...Earth!
     I couldn't help but think that IF we still were a space going country and had, say , a shuttle around, we could go save The Russians mission (for a hefty fee).
     Instead, we not only have no shuttles to fly, but we're dependant on...The Russian space program to get stuff into space. Brilliant!!!