If this article was correct, then what you said is not true. Seems like NASA went with a bad plan from the start to refurbish the old tech and made a costly, inefficient and risky tech-franken-zilla.
Nasa: No that's too costly.
Congress: lol ok we'll slash funding + you legally can't refuse.
If this sort of continued honesty-free space program is what Congress + NASA are going to give us, we'd be better off without a manned space program.