It's thoroughly depressing just how badly the space program has been cocked up in the last 40 years. Who would have believed that on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo XI launch and subsequent moon landing, that in 2009 we'd have made so little progress. Where's the moon base? Heck, where's the Martian base? Instead, all we have to show for it is the aging space shuttle, and the International Space Station, which is finally nearing completion. About the only bright spot is that the private sector seems to be making progress at last.
Now I read that they've grown bored with the ISS (or something) and are considering "de-orbitting" it in 2016. It's literally going to crash and burn ... or more accurately, burn and crash. Has there ever been a more insane decision? I hope that it's purely a strategic announcement aimed at putting pressure on the US government to cough up more cash for NASA. It costs an incredible amount to lift anything into orbit. Once it's up there, it's worth more than its weight in gold. Exactly how much is it worth? Well, one estimate puts it at $10,000 per pound to launch something into orbit on the space shuttle. The ISS weighs in at 654,000 pounds. So, we're talking about something in the order of $6.54 billion in launch costs alone, forgetting the cost of the actual equipment. They should never de-orbit the ISS, regardless of how antiquated it gets. Heck, if they don't want it anymore, push it out to one of the Lagrange points, and leave it there forever. I'm sure the Chinese will find a use for it.
