Comment Re:But how is this possible? (Score 1) 268
seeing as America does not currently have a manned space program to speak of.
FTFY.
I won't get into the whole "manned versus unmanned" argument. But I'd point out we "didn't have a manned space program to speak of" from 1975 to 1981--six years. We've been buying rides from the Russians since 2011. SpaceX is expecting to have it's capsule ready for it's first manned mission in 2017, which will be six years from the last Shuttle launch.
Somehow we survived the six years between 1975 and 1981 as a country without a manned spaceflight program. I think we'll probably do it again between 2011 and 2017.