I think many people here missunderstand what it means to 'run a spacestation' in terms of costs. I have absolutely no doubt that by 2015 either the Russians or the Europeans or the private sector could fully supply a crew of six on the ISS and provide crew transporters for 6-month rotations. HOWEVER, to actually keep the ISS savely maintained up in orbit, so that people can work on it, that won't happen because nobody except NASA has the human resources and the budget to do so.<br /><br />And to put all that in numbers, supply and crew support by Soyuz and Progress at the moment totals per year<br />~200 million dollars<br />'running the ISS', on the other hand, that is all things from EVA-support to fix failures of the icemachine (excluding Shuttle operations, Soyuz etc.) totals<br />~2 billion dollars for NASA alone.<br /><br />Therefore, even if spacex and co come up with a reuseable crew capsule and unmanned carriers, no private company will still be able to finance all the other costs that are associated with the ISS per year.<br /><br />Therefore, without NASA post 2015, no ISS. Trust me on that.