Soyuz, that's my baby

CNN has an article by Lara Farrar about the problems with NASA and the space program:

Experts are growing increasingly concerned that the United States will have to rely entirely upon Russia to take astronauts to and from the international space station for at least five years. Observers say the situation is all the more worrying as after NASA announced a delay in the launch of its next-generation Orion spacecraft.
NASA's dependency upon the Russian Soyuz space capsules and rockets to carry astronauts to the station is the result of a five-year gap between the scheduled retirement of the shuttle in 2010 and the debut of its replacement in 2015.
The agency had hoped it could narrow this gap by accelerating the initial launch of the craft to 2013 but announced Monday that because of inadequate funding and technical issues, the Constellation space program would not be ready for testing until September 2014.
Although the new date is still within the March 2015 absolute deadline, many experts say NASA's reliance upon Russia to take astronauts into space has placed the agency in an unnecessary position.
"It is our fault for not having a replacement for the shuttle much earlier than Orion will be available. It puts Russia in a very powerful position," John Logsdon, director of the space policy institute at George Washington University, said.
Although China has launched an astronaut into space in 2003, it still doesn't have the launching capabilities of the U.S. and Russia. But its space infrastructure is fast developing.
Questions about the safety and reliability of the Soyuz have also been raised in recent months after two consecutive troublesome landings by space capsules, including in April with American astronaut Peggy Whitson on board. NASA has been working with Russian engineers to try to determine the cause of the dangerous descents but has failed come up with any concrete answers.