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When I conquer the Martians, you all are invited to come.
Muah-ha ha ha ha...
(Yeah I'm really bored ??? )
But anyhow, back to the ISS.
I think the project was doomed from the start. Seeking financial assistance on such a large scale from countries who are infamous for not paying when the bill collecters come knocking was more of a political call than an intelligent one. The Russian people have enough trouble feeding themselves without having to help pay for a poorly planned space station that is twenty years after its time. I think it is time for NASA to stop trying to finally meet its goals from the 70s and 80s and start thinking about the present and more importantly the future.
Some one (Carl Sagan or Robert Zubrin, I think) once suggested that perhaps we should create a sort of "Port Authority" for near Earth space and force NASA to get out the way and start doing what they are supposed to be doing: EXPLORING. Set up an agency (just a minimalist operation not a bureaucratic dinosaur) to run everything inside of Geosynchronous orbit. This agency should also try ENCOURAGING not disouraging the private sector from getting involved in space.
The greatest barrier to our expansion into space for the last twenty or so years (in some ways since the beginning) has been the very agency created to break those barriers and the bureaucrats in charge. :angry:
Always remember: the government is their to serve the people, not to sabotage our destiny.
Here are just a couple of incidents since 1996 in Russia, but still a better track record than ours...
May 20, 1996: A Soyuz-U booster rocket carrying reconnaissance satellites explodes 49 seconds after lift-off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome.
June 20, 1996: A Soyuz-U rocket carrying reconnaissance satellites explodes after lift-off at Plesetsk cosmodrome.
May 20, 1997: A Russian Zenit-2 booster rocket carrying a Cosmos military satellite explodes 48 seconds after launch.
September 10, 1998: A computer malfunction brings down a Ukrainian rocket carrying 12 commercial satellites, minutes after blast off from Baikonur.
July 5, 1999: A Russian Proton-K heavy booster rocket launched from Baikonur suffers a malfunction which detached the engine and parts of the booster, causing them to crash onto the steppe. A 200-kg (440 lb) chunk falls into the courtyard of a private house. Kazakhstan briefly closes Baikonur in a row with Russia over clean-up costs and rent for the base.
October 28, 1999: A Russian Proton rocket carrying a communications satellite crashes shortly after take-off from Baikonur.
[I]
Even worse than this incident was the Chinese Rocket that failed during launch and destroyed part of a village near the launch site. The Chinese, of course, officially deny that anyone died, but a few western reporters smuggle out video of the destruction.
"Well it's about freaking time!"[B] :angry:
I go out and buy the biggest aluminium baseball bat I could find. Then I'd go and find every congress-person for the last 30 years that didn't have the common sense to support manned exploration of space (hence setting us back about 30 years from where we should have been) and beat them with the bat untill they woke up and got a freaking clue. Or until I got bored, seeing as how congress members couldn't see trees in a forest.