U.S. announces space station concept 25 years ago

William Atkins
Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:23

Science - Space

Information about the International Space Station is found on the NASA website.

As with most any “great adventure,” it takes much longer than originally planned. And, of course, much more money then ever thought about at its conception.

The plan to build a permanently manned space station in orbit about the Earth is still not completed, now twenty-five years later, even though the United States conceived that the space station would be completed within ten years.

However, it is being built, which does say something about the determination and technical ability of the United States to build large projects and to allow other countries to contribute to the building and participation of such a project.

In all, the International Space Station has cost over $80 billion (U.S.), with a range usually quoted between $35 billion and $100 billion. [MSNBC (August 25, 2006): “What's the cost of the space station?”]

When President Reagan first proposed the space station in 1984 , the “projected price was $8 billion.” [MSNBC] In 1993, President William Clinton stated that “the international station would cost $17.4 billion.” [MSNBC]

Sixteen countries on three continents, coordinated through the efforts of five space agencies (Russia (RKA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA), United States (NASA), ten European countries (ESA), and Brazil (BSA) and Italy (ISA) working directly with NASA) are working on the project, which is considered by some to be the most expensive international engineering project in the history of humankind.

An interesting February 3, 2004 article in the New York Times called “From Glory to Sideshow: The Space Station's Story” talks about the history of the building of ''our critical next step in all our space endeavors.''

Page four concludes....