As has been so often the case ever since the end of the Apollo program, and the Shuttle, it just seems like a lot of rhetoric with no clear goals. NASA and the private companies need to come together for a unified endeavor.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

The SpaceX Falcon9 rocket started from Pad 39A in the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, which had launched Apollo and Shuttle missions. It was the first time that a commercial rocket had started from a NASA launch Pad. The first stage of the rocket has landed also at Cape Canaveral on NASA ground. The Dragon capsule is slated to return to Earth in March with 2 tons (don't know if metric or Imperial) of old equipment and experiments, and junk.
Tullio

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The SpaceX Falcon9 rocket started from Pad 39A in the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, which had launched Apollo and Shuttle missions. It was the first time that a commercial rocket had started from a NASA launch Pad. The first stage of the rocket has landed also at Cape Canaveral on NASA ground. The Dragon capsule is slated to return to Earth in March with 2 tons (don't know if metric or Imperial) of old equipment and experiments, and junk.
Tullio

That's good news. Let's get these people together more often. The moon, Mars, and beyond await...

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

The shuttles have killed two crews. I think NASA could not afford the loss of a third crew. It is true that space is a dangerous enterprise, but shuttles had features (wings) unneeded in a spacecraft (a lifting body could have worked), wanted by the US Air Force. The X37-B is a mini shuttle with no crew.
Tullio

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I thought it was said NASA didn't want to fly the Shuttle anymore because it had no abort system and it was getting too expensive for the budget given to them. The "government" replacement for it is the Orion capsule and SLS rocket, and the private alternatives will be SpaceX Dragon/Falcon 9, Boeing CST100/multiple launch systems, and Sierra Nevada Dream-something. I wonder if Orion and SLS will be cancelled like the other replacement programs, but the development has progressed fairly far, so maybe they won't be cancelled.

But I don't know if the general idea was to keep the Shuttle until the replacements were ready.

In a few minutes, the Dragon spacecraft launched by SpaceX will dock to the ISS carrying an amount of supplies and scientific instrumentation like SAGE III by NASA. In a few hours the Progress cargo craft will launch from Baikonur to bring other supplies to the ISS. This joint American-Russian effort is a joy to me, an Italian. My father was sent by Mussolini to invade Russia and came back full of admiration for the Russian people and its humanity. Forward, forward the ships! (Cristoforo Colombo, on his way to America).
Tullio
Progress has already launched and is on its way.

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In a few minutes, the Dragon spacecraft launched by SpaceX will dock to the ISS carrying an amount of supplies and scientific instrumentation like SAGE III by NASA.

The Dragon approach was aborted, and another attempt will be made on Thursday.

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Italian papers say that an agreement was reached between the Italian Space Agency, headed by physicist Roberto Battiston, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to do some research together on the Tiangong-3 Space Station. Maybe an Italian astronaut will fly on it, who knows.
Tullio

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The Danes are very brave:)
I saw this docu the other day.
AMATEURS IN SPACE trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZlltBkq4vs
AMATEURS IN SPACE is the story of two men, Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen, and their shared boyhood dream of traveling into space - in their own rocket. If successful, they do not just make Denmark to a space power nation like the United States, Russia and China, they will also write themselves into history as the first amateur to implement a human spaceflight. Supported by donors and volunteers working Kristian and Peter are to realize the dream of a few funds and great commitment. They will prove that space is not only reserved for large nations, but also can be explored by "ordinary people".
It is a film about courage and human tireless striving forward and upward. It is the story of the biggest dream in human time, and how, in his own way, causes it to come true. But the two lovers must realize that even small obstacles can slow grand visions. Soon beats cooperation between the two friends sparks and they are each other's worst opponents in the race for space.
Director: Max Kestner
https://copenhagensuborbitals.com/