Early Thursday morning, a Russian space launch carrying an American and a Russian to the International Space Station failed, forcing an emergency landing in Kazakhstan. Although the crew members were safe, the failure of the Soviet-designed booster rockets highlights the importance of a domestic space program and reinforces just how troubling current delays to that program are.

Since the space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, the U.S. has relied on Russian rockets to take American astronauts to the International Space Station, paying between $70 and $80 million per seat.