

In Soviet Russia, space travels you





Energia heavy lift vehicle
Energia's heavy lift rocket is moving ahead towards a 2018 launch.
[Image Source: RCS Energia]





Source: Space Travel

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RE: go for it!
By Ringold on 12/30/2012 11:42:42 PM , Rating: 2
While I generally agree, the idea around the original ISS and its precursors that'd been on and off the drawing boards since the 60s and 70s, that was promising, and a lot of useful things were VERY possible.

That said, as so often happens in life, government took a great idea and implemented it in the worst possible way imaginable. Freedom Station and similar concepts gave way to smaller plans, which gave way to an international project, which got pared back at the last minute due to typical government cost overruns to where what we have now is almost completely useless. If I'm not mistaken, most of the ISS crews time is spent just keeping the wheels turning, so to speak.

I think the ISS being a white elephant, a money-sink, nearly a disaster, isn't reflective of the merits of a manned presence in space. It's just reflective of how a great agency can be hollowed out and how government bureaucracy can ruin about anything. SpaceX and others are now trying to prove that their is another way forward outside the old paradigm of a couple favored contractors and limitless budgets.

RE: go for it!
By JediJeb on 1/2/2013 5:52:41 PM , Rating: 2
It makes one wonder what the amount of money spent on the ISS would have produced if used by SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace for a similar project. How many billions would it have costs to make a large ring of those inflatable space habitats that could rotate for artificial gravity?

