The International Space Station has survived
hopefully the last challenge to it's existence, avoiding the same fate as the Superconducting Supercollider.
I'll never understand Congress' propensity to fund a program to near completion and
then attempt to cancel it. To be fair though, the space station's budget seems to be
spiraling out of control much like the SSC. Hopefully some real science will emerge
from this $100 billion dollar monster. Probably the most important discoveries from
the station will relate to the effects of long-term weightlessness. Hopefully this
information will be useful someday on the inevitable mission to Mars.
The first module (Zarya
or "Sunrise") is slated for launch in November 1998, followed soon after in
December by a Unity
Node and docking station. After that, there will be 42 more launches
and it will be all done! (in 2004).
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This page has been accessed times since Feb 9th, 1997.