Are you having a hard time getting excited about NASA's Shuttle replacement.?

I would't say a hundred times safer. They are still having trouble with the SRB reverberation problems. The larger SRBs magnify the same effect that the shuttle SRBs experience. The shuttle program is littered with cut corners, however, and it has outlived its scheduled retirement date. No, I can't wait till they launch the first one, it will be like we actually have a space program again (not just a space pick-up designed for hauling stuff back and forth from LEO).