NASA’s New Big Winners

Remember the guy you didn’t like in high school but had to be nice to because he had a car and he gave you lifts? Welcome to U.S.-Russia relations in space. Since 2011, when the last space shuttle stood down, American astronauts have had to hitch rides aboard the Russian Soyuz to get to the International Space Station (ISS)–which, by the way, we built. …


This appears in the September 29, 2014 issue of TIME.