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A Brief History of the Space Station

Posted by michael on from the built-by-the-lowest-bidders dept.

HyperbolicParabaloid writes "A story about the history of the International Space Station, and its utility or non-utility for space exploration. One interesting insight: after the Challenger explosion it became obvious that we would never refuel a rocket with volatile fuel at a space station because the threat to the station would be so great. And did you know that to accomodate the Russians, the space station is in an orbit that makes it almost useless as a jumping off point to anywhere?"

4 of 380 comments (clear)

  1. Space Station by essreenim · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmm, it's in near earth orbit to accomodate the Russians.

    I thought they needed extra fans to accomodate the wind passed by the Russian cosmonots after eating all that dodgy Pizza hut grub.

  2. Jump off - go nowhere fast. by gus+goose · · Score: 4, Funny

    Jumping off the space station will not take you very far very fast. You will pretty much just stay in orbit with the ISS. By definition, it is in orbit. If per chance you DID jump off, in the direction of earth, then it would probably take about a year or so for your orbit to decay enough to re-enter earth's atmosphere.

    gus

    --
    .. if only.
  3. Had to be said... by pointzero · · Score: 5, Funny

    Russian parts, American parts... ALL MADE IN TAIWAN
    Ok back to work.

  4. Re:Built by a committee by OriginalArlen · · Score: 4, Funny
    In the beginning, the space station was created.

    This has made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded as a Bad Move.

    --

    Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven