Or even Plan 9.

The Economist points out the elephant sitting in the corner of the space program living room. And the absurdity of our current space policy. This will be one of Mike Griffin's greatest challenges.

Ditching the ISS or selling our stake in it is starting to look really good. Griffin made a good
point when he asked if the expected benefits of having the ISS would really outweigh the $60B or so
it will take to see it through retirement. I think the answer is probably no, and the sooner everyone
realizes that, the better.

Now if we can actually get ourselves out of this mess or not is an entirely different question.

~Jon

I'll agree that the ISS is a waste of money and resources... but about those resources, do we have other plans for them? Maybe CEV?

ISS not only kept Russian scientist from finding employment inn hostile foreign regimes; it also kept provided some of our brilliant US minds with something to do.

I'm one for letting those minds do great things outside of NASA. I just don't think the private industry is ready to absorb the numbers. Congress and NASA would do good to abandon ISS, but the cutback should be gradual.

Sell the Space Station Albatross to the Russians et al, and build our own. Call it...oh, I dunno...Space Station Freedom maybe? Use lots of TransHab modules and put it in a useful orbit.

That's what I'd do anyway.

I say put a giant laser turret on it and shoot all those evil Russian scientists in the head from space :D MUAHAHAHAHA!!

You mean you got me a frickin' space station? With giant LASERS on it?!?!

Ditching the space station has been looking good for a couple of decades now. But it's good to see that organizations may, when all other options are exhausted, finally decide to do the right thing.