NASA is actually a fairly amazing entity... or it was. We did something awesome, simply to show that it could be done, and that we were the cool cats that could do it. We sent man to the moon... we brought him back safely.
All this low earth orbit crap is like going back to masturbation after having sex. Sure it's space (well sort of anyway) but is it really satisfying? NASA can send up the space shuttle to the International Space Fiasco, and 99 times out of 100 they don't kill everyone in the process. Who cares?