Question regarding the end of the Shuttle program

I was reading another post that indicated that the Shuttle
program is going to be ended in 6, maybe 7 years tops, and
it occurred to me to wonder, what will replace it? I've not
heard of any concrete programs to replace the Shuttle, and
since it would take at least ten years to get something up
and running it's going to be at least 2004-2005 before that
replacement actually happens, if at all. That leaves a good
four to five (if not more) gap where we won't have the ability
to launch anything anywhere. Does that mean that ISS will
be decommissioned and deorbited at that point since there
won't be any way to service it or, more importantly, reboost
it? If that is the case, why bother finishing it?

I had always thought of ISS as the first real step toward
fulfilling humankind's destiny to be spacefarers, but now
it's looking like more of a way to blow a few hundred
billion dollars on nothing.

JazzMan
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