Ace of Spades HQ

July 27, 2011

Russia to Down the ISS in 2020; Will Anybody Notice?
— Gabriel Malor

On the one hand, the International Space Station was started in 1998. So if the Russians crash her in 2020, it'll have spent more than two decades in orbit. Except, on the other hand, the ISS isn't scheduled to be completed until next year.

Oddly, nobody seems to think the Russians are telling the truth about this.

"We will be forced to sink the ISS. We cannot leave it in orbit as it is a very complicated and a heavy object," Roscosmos' deputy head Vitaly Davydov said in an interview posted on the agency's website.
"We have agreed with our partners that the ISS would function roughly until 2020," he noted.
After sinking hundreds of millions into construction of the space station -- billions if you include the cost of the space shuttle flights that carried the ISS modules into orbit -- knowledgeable government sources and NASA spokesmen were aghast at Davydov's plans to sink the station in the ocean.
This isn't the first time I've seen Russia come out with a statement that seems to be coming out of their own stovepipes," one congressional representative told FoxNews.com. "I would give it no credence at all."

Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for. No cheating, you!

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:36 PM | Comments (98)
Post contains 235 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for.

Testing how good your camera takes pictures of the night sky?

Posted by: HeatherRadish at July 27, 2011 03:37 PM (0vDuM)

2 Out of this orbit sex ??

Posted by: ken at July 27, 2011 03:39 PM (JMKx6)

3 Wow

Posted by: Phoenixgirl at July 27, 2011 03:39 PM (HlEmr)

4 Using underwear as a CO2 filter?

Posted by: Not Drinking Nearly Enough at July 27, 2011 03:40 PM (JEvSn)

5 We don't need to make any cuts to budget now apparently we Only need to cut the space program to keep us afloat!

Posted by: Phoenixgirl at July 27, 2011 03:41 PM (HlEmr)

6 Urine recycling technology?

Posted by: GnuBreed at July 27, 2011 03:43 PM (ENKCw)

7 Testing space construction techniques, practice operating robot cargo shuttles. Any good that might have come out of the ISS was sabotaged away when they operated it on a budget just large enough to stay operational without enough money to actually DO anything. Now that I think it about it, ISS has been a great success. Many govt. drones have been well paid for decades. What better use can there be for money?

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at July 27, 2011 03:44 PM (/62i9)

We could use it as Muslim outreach, if we can shoot it down in such a way that it will land on Mecca.

Posted by: Truman North at July 27, 2011 03:44 PM (K2wpv)

We could use it as Muslim outreach, if we can shoot it down in such a way that it will land on Mecca.

Posted by: Truman North at July 27, 2011 07:44 PM (K2wpv)

I could get behind this proposal, if it was timed for hadj.

Posted by: GnuBreed at July 27, 2011 03:48 PM (ENKCw)

10 It killed NASA. --not sure that is a good thing but since they chose to morph into AGW proponents instead of exploring space maybe it is.

Posted by: palerider - at July 27, 2011 03:49 PM (dkExz)

11 The ISS was a useless piece of crap. We need an American space station which builds spacefaring vessels.

Posted by: Bevel Lemelisk at July 27, 2011 03:50 PM (uhAkr)

12 This is nothing but the Russians rattling the tin cup. Geez, have they no shame?

Posted by: pep at July 27, 2011 03:50 PM (6TB1Z)

13 A) Who gave them the right to unilaterally down the ISS? Oh yeah we did, but unilaterally withdrawing from Space? Never mind

Posted by: nevergiveup at July 27, 2011 03:50 PM (7wmOW)

14 Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for. No cheating, you!

New members of the 100-Mile High Club?

Posted by: Rod Rescueman at July 27, 2011 03:51 PM (HwE/1)

15
Sink and then retrieve?

For a museum?

Posted by: soothsayer at July 27, 2011 03:51 PM (q19mL)

16 Geez, have they no shame? Posted by: pep at July 27, 2011 07:50 PM (6TB1Z) Probably not, but they also have the only way to put a man into space now a days other than their red chicom neighbors

Posted by: nevergiveup at July 27, 2011 03:52 PM (7wmOW)

17
As a museum piece it will make some money and finally be worthwhile.

Posted by: soothsayer at July 27, 2011 03:52 PM (o/lnZ)

18 Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for. No cheating, you! Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:36 PM Multiple bullshit gazillion dollar university space experiments? Adult diaper technology?

Posted by: Ms Choksondik at July 27, 2011 03:53 PM (sVk8z)

19 The International Space Station is mankind's greatest achievement to date. It is a permanently manned outpost orbiting the Earth 250 miles up at 17,500 miles per hour. We need to build at International Moon Base next. And then, on to Mars.

Posted by: KSgop at July 27, 2011 03:57 PM (1B8Ua)

20
if the answer is google maps...

Posted by: soothsayer at July 27, 2011 03:58 PM (6a1ih)

21 And by the way, Roscosmos can say whatever they want, it doesn't make it true. The Russians don't own the ISS, they only own their half of it. The USOS and truss structure are owned by the United States and our other partners (Europe, Japan, and Canada).

Posted by: KSgop at July 27, 2011 03:59 PM (1B8Ua)

22 i'd mine it for GOLD!

Posted by: dudeformerlyinsantacruz at July 27, 2011 03:59 PM (Y28zU)

23
but seriously, the answer is the ISS located Osama for Obama Joe Biden when he got lost.

Posted by: soothsayer at July 27, 2011 03:59 PM (6a1ih)

24 I think it should be saved and turned into an orbital brothel.

Posted by: Soona at July 27, 2011 04:00 PM (0jg/X)

"Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for."

It gave children in the Western world and Russia a chance to dream! It was a FRED, just like the shuttle itself.

Posted by: Fa Cube Itches at July 27, 2011 04:00 PM (xy9wk)

26 Roscosmos can say whatever they want, it doesn't make it true. The Russians don't own the ISS, they only own their half of it. The USOS and truss structure are owned by the United States and our other partners (Europe, Japan, and Canada). Posted by: KSgop at July 27, 2011 07:59 PM (1B8Ua) 100% true, but since they are the only ones who can fly men and supplies to it at the moment, perhaps we are seeing some muscle flexing. Another benefit of the USA withdrawing from space travel.

Posted by: nevergiveup at July 27, 2011 04:02 PM (7wmOW)

This will just be a ruse (see what I did there? A russian fake out - a ruse!) to hide an attack on the United States while I am in the final months of my second term. See, the Rooskies have hidden a giant EMP machine on board the ISS, which will have to enter the atmosphere over the Atlantic ocean and cross the continental US in order to land in the Pacific ocean. During the overflight, juuuuuussssstttt about over Joplin, MO, those Godless commies will detonate the EMP, wiping out all electronic gear in the US, just long enough for hordes of Mexican Narco-terrorists armed with F&F weapons and flying jet aircraft smuggled in from Israel to attack and overwhelm and conquer our glorious nation.

Fortunately, Trig Palin, my VP's son, will then be in the US Airforce (due to the hyper-intelligence he shows in his early schooling; something to do with drugs that Andrew Sullivan injected into Sarah Palin during a nocturnal visit when she was pregnant) and will engineer a special weapon that will shoot down the ISS just before it detonates, thereby saving the Western world from defeat.

Vote for me in 2012!

Posted by: Ron Paul! at July 27, 2011 04:02 PM (wMsKw)

28 And they kept that piece of shit Mir up there well past its lifespan, this is attempted blackmail on their part.

Posted by: buzzion at July 27, 2011 04:03 PM (oVQFe)

29 Ah, man. Fucking O'Reilly harping on the TP again. Give it a rest picklenose.

Posted by: Soona at July 27, 2011 04:03 PM (0jg/X)

30 OT -- I haven't noticed any mention of the new Executive Order that JugEars signed on the 25th. It sounds like he plans on doing some confiscating; what it is ain't exactly clear.

Posted by: GnuBreed at July 27, 2011 04:04 PM (ENKCw)

31 Fucking O'Reilly harping on the TP again. Give it a rest picklenose. Posted by: Soona at July 27, 2011 08:03 PM (0jg/X) That's why I am watching the Shawshank Redemption for the 50th time

Posted by: nevergiveup at July 27, 2011 04:05 PM (7wmOW)

32 Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for. Transferring technology to our enemies.

Posted by: Empire of Jeff, EXXXTREMIST at July 27, 2011 04:05 PM (lGFXF)

33 Posted by: Ron Paul! at July 27, 2011 08:02 PM (wMsKw)

If you replace every other word with "I'm a fuckwit" it creates a secret message.

Posted by: Not Drinking Nearly Enough at July 27, 2011 04:05 PM (JEvSn)

@21: "The International Space Station is mankind's greatest achievement to date."

Ooooh, ahhhhhhhh-yeah. We, along with the Voyagers, are gonna have to go ahead and ahhhh disagree with you, there.

Posted by: Messers. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins at July 27, 2011 04:05 PM (xy9wk)

35 12 The ISS was a useless piece of crap. We need an American space station which builds spacefaring vessels wessels.
________

FIFY

Posted by: Ensigh Chekhov at July 27, 2011 04:06 PM (IrbU4)

36 In Soviet Union, space station land on you.

Posted by: Yakov Smirnoff, Cosmonaut at July 27, 2011 04:07 PM (QKKT0)

Didn't O'Dickbag want to de-orbit the ISS in 2015?

A campaign promise, IIRC.

Posted by: ErikW at July 27, 2011 04:07 PM (TaoxO)

38 How to quietly fap and catch it all before it floats into somebody's face and hair? Laundry day must be a bitch.

Posted by: Ohio Dan at July 27, 2011 04:08 PM (YWk21)

39 Hotair has a link to the 50 most beautifull people on capitol hill. Guess which party the top 5 are on?

Posted by: Flapjackmaka at July 27, 2011 04:09 PM (kG75t)

40 How to quietly fap and catch it all before it floats into somebody's face and hair?

That's what tube socks are for.

Posted by: Ivan Yakinov at July 27, 2011 04:10 PM (JEvSn)

41 This will be devastating.

Posted by: The Manufacturers of TANG at July 27, 2011 04:10 PM (MMC8r)

42 Diversity in space.

Posted by: Huey at July 27, 2011 04:10 PM (Ih9cZ)

43 A few years ago, I wanted to do my 'around the world retirement cruise' on the ISS.

These days I'll be happy if I don't spend my last days fighting the zombie horde and I'll be thrilled if I get to retire in a conventional sense.

Posted by: fluffy at July 27, 2011 04:12 PM (SwkdU)

44 Well, the cost to blow it all to Hell is nil. President PantLoad's 'NASA outreach to the muslim world' has just paid off in spades.

Load about 67 of them on a shuttle...wait, how many can they squeeze in there?? I bet they could pack a shitload into the cargo bay. Hell, even if the shuttle blows up half a mile after launch...everybody wins!!!

Rinse and repeat.

Posted by: Portnoy at July 27, 2011 04:13 PM (KROfR)

45 Yeah ... but the cosmonauts on Mir grew accustomed to eating dogshit sandwiches and liking them ... a lot. We're only up to pig vomit in America. Posted by: progressoverpeace at July 27, 2011 08:07 PM (G/MYk) Oh you just wait, I have big plans for you. You'll be begging for pig vomit sandwiches.

Posted by: Michelle O, food cop at July 27, 2011 04:13 PM (sVk8z)

46 A good spot to send the wackier envriros for a real-life version of "Silent Running".

Posted by: There's no O in Liberty at July 27, 2011 04:13 PM (+6REq)

47 Who broke the main blog page? It is very skinny for me. I blame the damn corn man on the side.

Posted by: Ronster at July 27, 2011 04:13 PM (9h8nr)

Ooooh, ahhhhhhhh-yeah. We, along with the Voyagers, are gonna have to go ahead and ahhhh disagree with you, there.

Posted by: Messers. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins at July 27, 2011 08:05 PM (xy9wk)

The space program is effectively dead.

Everything that Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins worked towards was a waste of time and you can thank Obama.

Posted by: ErikW at July 27, 2011 04:14 PM (TaoxO)

49 41 How to quietly fap and catch it all before it floats into somebody's face and hair? Laundry day must be a bitch. Posted by: Ohio Dan at July 27, 2011 08:08 PM (YWk21) I've actually wondered about that more times than I care to admit.

Posted by: Ms Choksondik at July 27, 2011 04:14 PM (sVk8z)

50 Praise Jesus, we're getting closer to heaven!!11!!1!1!

Posted by: the Charlie Daniels of the torque wrench at July 27, 2011 04:14 PM (le5qc)

51 had to turn savage off in the car. He was building a scenario of the russians and the chinese working together to control the world from space. Instead switched to the fan.

Posted by: curious at July 27, 2011 04:16 PM (k1rwm)

52 The science of zero gravity plumbing has been advanced via the ISS.

Posted by: Mister Money at July 27, 2011 04:16 PM (wN82N)

tell me what the ISS has been good for

Pissing over ones head without getting wet?

Posted by: Ronster at July 27, 2011 04:18 PM (9h8nr)

54 my friend the designer tells me that thanks to the space station we now have toilets with a big button and a little button, to conserve water. She says clients are still confused by them though. If you push the wrong button apparently you have to push that same button at least three more times otherwise you have a problem. Oh the problems of my lib friends are earth shaking.

Posted by: curious at July 27, 2011 04:18 PM (k1rwm)

55 42 Hotair has a link to the 50 most beautifull people on capitol hill. Guess which party the top 5 are on? Posted by: Flapjackmaka at July 27, 2011 08:09 PM (kG75t) I'm sure Debbie Washedup-Schultz is on the list right? I mean she's got that cute smile and awesome perm and a tiny, pert ass.

Posted by: Ms Choksondik at July 27, 2011 04:20 PM (sVk8z)

56 It sounds like he plans on doing some confiscating; what it is ain't exactly clear.

I have to admit that I've only heard of 2 of these organizations

1. THE BROTHERSÂ’ CIRCLE (f.k.a. FAMILY OF ELEVEN; f.k.a. THE TWENTY)
2. CAMORRA
3. YAKUZA (a.k.a. BORYOKUDAN; a.k.a. GOKUDO)
4. LOS ZETAS

Posted by: toby928™ at July 27, 2011 04:22 PM (GTbGH)

57 >tell me what the ISS has been good for. As I recall, seeing how fast cosmo/astronauts can evacuate the smoking section of a defective space station? Smoking bits in space = not good.

Posted by: Argh at July 27, 2011 04:22 PM (LJAdd)

I mean she's got that cute smile and awesome perm and a tiny, pert ass.

Her face looks like it caught on fire and it was stomped out by someone wearing baseball cleats.

Posted by: Ronster at July 27, 2011 04:23 PM (9h8nr)

59 The ISS Program is currently planning on an agreed to timeline up to 2020. That plan date has been expanded a couple of times as the end date nears. There has to be an end date for governments to budget. The 2020 date was just recently approved by all partners. Russia has the only capability to Dept it the ISS using their Progress vehicle which is used to re-supply the Station. Therefore, if the ISS Progra, M is terminated in 2020, the Russians are the only ones capable of doing it.

Posted by: David at July 27, 2011 04:24 PM (ksn8f)

60 tell me what the ISS has been good for Green jobs?

Posted by: Brendan at July 27, 2011 04:24 PM (U6MtO)

61 The science of zero gravity plumbing has been advanced via the ISS.

Posted by: Mister Money at July 27, 2011 08:16 PM (wN82N)

Indeed it has. Only a multi-national space effort could figure that one out.

Posted by: ErikW at July 27, 2011 04:25 PM (TaoxO)

62 tell me what the ISS has been good for Mitt Romney

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at July 27, 2011 04:25 PM (U6MtO)

63 45 This will be devastating. Posted by: The Manufacturers of TANG What's this I hear about a tang surplus?

Posted by: David Wu at July 27, 2011 04:28 PM (U6MtO)

64 How would the Russians even go about "fowning" the ISS? It would be a major undertaking, and I doubt they'd spend the money. The important thing is that the new President in 2012 insist that that SpaceX's Dragon capsule come on line ASAP, and fully reinvigorate America's space program. The current state of affairs is a national disgrace.

Posted by: CoolCzech at July 27, 2011 04:30 PM (kUaEF)

tell me what the ISS has been good for

I always liked the episode with the ISS Enterprise (Mirror, Mirror). Spock with a beard was awesome!

Posted by: malclave at July 27, 2011 04:31 PM (W1Ndc)

66 ISS was used for growing peas, which all Americans must now eat: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576506003183 And this was in 2007. Yet another example of the amazing foresight of our current President.

Posted by: Sincerely, Your Congressman at July 27, 2011 04:31 PM (evvN+)

67 In the long run, this is a very good thing if they do destroy our space station. It was a huge mistake to partner with nations like Russia on something so valuable. They will screw us. It is their way to screw everyone they can. It's just their way.

Japan, India, and the USA can build a new space station with a real purpose to replace that one. We'll need one to build a serious craft for space exploration.

I don't think it would be so bad to take a few years off, though.

Posted by: Dustin at July 27, 2011 04:32 PM (519+h)

68 Crap, I meant "downing," of course.

Posted by: CoolCzech at July 27, 2011 04:33 PM (kUaEF)

69 It would be stupid for Russians to put the ISS in the Pacific but it wouldn't be surprising. Those Commie assholes just don't make sense.

Posted by: ErikW at July 27, 2011 04:34 PM (TaoxO)

70 There's nothing wrong with the ISS. It's functionally sound. Just because Obama is an asshole doesn't mean the space program has to suffer.

Posted by: ErikW at July 27, 2011 04:36 PM (TaoxO)

Posted by: Ron Paul! at July 27, 2011 08:02 PM (wMsKw)

If you replace every other word with "I'm a fuckwit" it creates a secret message.

Posted by: Not Drinking Nearly Enough at July 27, 2011 08:05 PM (JEvSn)

You're a fuckwit?

Posted by: Ron Paul! at July 27, 2011 04:37 PM (wMsKw)

72 The ruskies are threatening, hoping for a handout from the US to keep their astronauts on the payroll.

Posted by: Ronster at July 27, 2011 04:38 PM (9h8nr)

"Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for. No cheating, you!"

Space sticks!! Oh, wait, that was Apollo.

Posted by: Tantorus Maximus at July 27, 2011 04:40 PM (3Ohzw)

74 GAMAL ABDEL NASA

Hah!

Posted by: pep at July 27, 2011 04:43 PM (6TB1Z)

75 You can't trust India. They build shitty stuff, anyway. Posted by: progressoverpeace at July 27, 2011 08:35 PM (G/MYk) Bitches can cook though.

Posted by: Ms Choksondik at July 27, 2011 04:44 PM (sVk8z)

76 Can you propel yourself throughout the ISS by farting?

Posted by: YIKES! at July 27, 2011 04:48 PM (sxNeR)

77 It is too heavy to remain in orbit. But for $850 million of your American dollars...

Posted by: Steve O at July 27, 2011 04:53 PM (ZSXRh)

78 They're just creating publicity. It will be the first official item listed and sold on ebay.russia.com.

Posted by: Steve O at July 27, 2011 04:54 PM (ZSXRh)

79 We're not planning on crashing the ISS. We're just letting everyone know that Tsibliev and Lazutkin are scheduled to go back up in 2020, and well....everyone knows they had some "problems" on Mir. We're not optimistic that their plug-recognition skills have improved much.

Posted by: Roscosmos at July 27, 2011 05:01 PM (xy9wk)

80 Can you imagine how badly the Indian Space Station will stink of curry, one day? Jeebus.

Posted by: CoolCzech at July 27, 2011 05:07 PM (kUaEF)

*swimming*

Ooh! A sardine!

*nom*

*swimming*

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!

*swimming*

Posted by: A blue shark somewhere in the Pacific in 2020 at July 27, 2011 05:07 PM (xy9wk)

82 tang

Posted by: robtr at July 27, 2011 05:10 PM (MtwBb)

83 "Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for. No cheating, you!" Dehydrated ice cream technology!

Posted by: CoolCzech at July 27, 2011 05:10 PM (kUaEF)

84 Everything that Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins worked towards was a waste of time and you can thank Obama.

Obama irritates me as much as anyone on this site, but he's not the problem. The problem - the problem - is NASA's primary mission is to employ the 20,000 people who work on the space shuttle. It's a jobs program.

That's why NASA could never come up with a shuttle replacement - the shuttle's primary deficiency is it costs too damn much to operate because it requires too many people to keep it running, but because any follow-on program had to employ all those same people the cost problem was impossible for NASA to address.

We need to decide what NASA is for. If it's going to continue to be a jobs program it's not going to accomplish much in space. If it's going to be a space agency most of the people who worked on STS are going to have to find something else to do.

Posted by: Ace's liver at July 27, 2011 05:14 PM (XIXhw)

85 Wait a minute--who actually owns it? I remember some controversy about the U.S. providing funding to cover the empty-wallet Russkies.

It's sort of like buying a few cubes of beer for someone you know, and turning around and discovering he went ahead and cashed in the empties at the recycling place without offering you first refusal.

Posted by: Mike James at July 27, 2011 05:23 PM (FMUMi)

86 Quick, without looking it up on Google, tell me what the ISS has been good for. No cheating, you! What is "good for nothing", Alex

Posted by: No Whining at July 27, 2011 05:56 PM (XHhkx)

87 If it didn't make muslims feel good about themselves it was a total waste.

Posted by: Barack Insane Obama at July 27, 2011 06:00 PM (hbAPu)

88 So we're boned when the titanium-clad twin shuttles required to destroy the incoming asteroid cannot swing by the Space Service Station to top their tanks with hi-test? Downer, C. R. ...

Posted by: No Whining at July 27, 2011 06:00 PM (XHhkx)

89 Back in my day, we were taught that after you paid to haul something up the gravity well it was a sin to let it fall out and burn up. It's been a subject of conjecture for 40 damn years, who's going to corral all the out-of-use satellites and spare parts and catalog the damn things for re-use.

Sure the circuitry may be obsolete, but tin is tin, dammit, and getting tin into orbit is not getting cheaper. If nothing else, the ISS would make a decent junkyard office.

Posted by: comatus at July 27, 2011 06:12 PM (W5ilH)

The ISS existed to justify the existence of the space shuttle. That is all.

One can make a decent case for tax funding of miitary-related space research, the study of sunlike stars, and the search for Earth-crossing asteroids. That's about it. Until there's a commercial application to manned space flight (tourism?), robots do almost everything cheaper than humans. Humans require life support systems which don't generate any benefit above what robots would provide.

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at July 27, 2011 06:21 PM (+qoBO)

91 The commenters who said Russia was just setting the predicate for extorting money from the U.S. were right on. You'd think they'd be more than satisfied with the propaganda win of still having a large launch capacity after the U.S. was out of the game, but no.

I certainly don't mind splitting the cost of the expendables for launches to supply the damn thing, but I'd want to audit the books and see how much overhead and corruption they're trying to roll into it.

I don't think we should be in any hurry to let the thing re-enter, because it could well stay aloft for a few decades. By that point commercial rockets may have advanced enough to let Americans get back there again--and marvel over all the obsolete technology!

Be interesting to see what happens to it over 20 or 30 years.

Posted by: sf at July 27, 2011 07:31 PM (bJsQe)

92 They proved that weightlessness is still around 50+ years after Sputnik.

Posted by: Robert17 at July 27, 2011 08:24 PM (LaaRT)

Two weeks ago Atlantis landed at KSC ending the 30 year space shuttle program. Last week the Russians declared that this is now the glorious Era of Soyuz, their 45 pus year old program in which we will pay them 60 million a seat to fly one of our astronauts to the ISS. Now they tell us when THEY will decide to deorbit the ISS.

Wake up America. We need immediate and assured acces to space now. Until we have a confirmed and viable followup program for the shuttle restart the assembly lines for the external tanks, etc and keep the shuttle flying. Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour have over 200 unflown missions left on their airframes. Instead of heading to museums the orbiters could be flying a shuttle every other month for the next 30 plus YEARS. Bet you did not know that...

The shuttle program was to be followed by the Constellation program but Constellation was canceled by Obama so now we have nothing in place but studies, PP presentations and more hot air about a possible mission, sometimes in the future on some theoretical, unbuilt and unfunded launch vehicle that does not exist.

If you think the shuttle program was expensive imagine how expensive the world will be to live in once we cede the high ground of space to the Russians and Chinese.

Posted by: B767Guy at July 27, 2011 08:47 PM (qshNj)

94 I'm telling you guys, India. We need their technology. A joint Japanese USA Indian and Nigerian space station.

What? you think it's a charade to cooperate with less advanced countries on this stuff? Crazy.

Posted by: Dustin at July 27, 2011 09:46 PM (519+h)

95 Reminds me of Skylab. Chicago's LOOP (97.9) took a $1,000,000 insurance policy with Lloyds of London in case it crashed into their tower. The local DJ, Steve Dahl made a funny (?) parody song "Skylab" (Rolling Stones), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLoNQNK376E

Posted by: Tony Greer at July 28, 2011 12:09 AM (UobUQ)

96 One of the paragraphs is an Easter egg.

Posted by: The Snowman Audio Book at July 28, 2011 05:39 AM (NLVZi)

I think it should be boosted into Eath-Moon L4 or L5.

There it can be mothballed for future missions with very little maintenance.

Posted by: Cluebat from Exodar at July 28, 2011 06:36 AM (y67bA)

What is ISS good for?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Posted by: RokShox at July 28, 2011 09:00 AM (pcly4)

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