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NASA Plans To De-Orbit ISS In 2016
NewbieV writes "The international space station is by far the largest spacecraft ever built by earthlings. Circling the Earth every 90 minutes, it often passes over North America and is visible from the ground when night has fallen but the station, up high, is still bathed in sunlight.
After more than a decade of construction, it is nearing completion and finally has a full crew of six astronauts. The last components should be installed by the end of next year. And then? 'In the first quarter of 2016, we'll prep and de-orbit the spacecraft,' says NASA's space station program manager, Michael T. Suffredini."
Isn't really permanent, eh?
I don't get it...
1. Build ISS
2. Deorbit...
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.
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X. Profit?!?!
what, your laptop getting warranty repair work again?
i wage a holy war against the apostrophe.
Build another one, then de-orbit both of them. Why build and destroy one when you can do two for twice the price?
How much was invested in this thing, I wonder?
If only there were a way we could find out...
Oh wait... I know...
Maybe check the single link to the very short article where it mentions twice an "estimated" 100 Billion (US$) combined from all involved countries.
The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture will clearly have something to say about this!
OMG!!! Ponies!!!
Now that they have this it's inevitable that productivity will begin to sink and before you know it there's nothing to do but /. and surf for porn... Might as well start planning for its decommissioning, the place will be useless in a year.
read
It will be tested heavily this month, and could give astronauts direct Internet access within a year.
Tested heavily. My point exactly.
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
I can't wait for my girlfriend (and her pussy) to get back from vacation
As opposed to your girlfriend leaving her pussy on vacation? I think I saw something about that in the National Enquirer once.....
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
If you're going to deorbit it, why waste it on the ocean? At least drop it on a country we don't like. Or on Kenny.
Why, she will probably need to rest it for a while anyway.
Well hopefully, there will be no moon or mars missions in the forseeable future. These would be probably just as useless as the ISS, and more expensive and dangerous.
Manned spaceflight should end until earth to orbit costs $100/lb or less.
However space probes and experiments should continue to be sent up. In fact if the entire budget that is being used for manned spaceflight were redirected to unmanned space exploration and science it would be good.
...
Maybe they have a fat policy on it...
Yes, but look on the bright side: With the LHC being in Europe instead of here, we'll have a few extra nanoseconds to react before we're swallowed up by the resulting black hole.
Use the ISS as a platform to build a continuous ring around the earth.
Gravity should evenly pull on the ring, so no pesky de-orbiting.
They should put some celebrities on it and have them plead for money unless people want to watch them die a horrible fiery death.
Hmm, on second thoughts that woul be awesome to watch.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
That's like taking 6 months of the Iraq war funding and just burning it.
You repeat yourself.
"Who modded this informative? Whoever it is must've been smokin' some of that martian pot!"
you know our culture has become so shallow that more people would watch "ISS Survivor" than the moon landings
$100 billion? Jeez, for that we could have nationalized two more GMs!