The International Space Station Turns 15 (time.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Today marks the 15th birthday of the International Space Station (ISS). Since Nov. 2, 2000 the ISS has hosted more than 220 people from more than a dozen countries. Time reports: "The ISS was little more than three pressurized modules, some supplies and a couple of solar wings to help keep it powered on the day the first crew climbed aboard. Today, the station is a flying piece of cosmic infrastructure the size of a football field, containing 15 pressurized modules, which afford the astronauts as much habitable space as a six-bedroom home. It weighs 1 million pounds (454,000 kg), runs on 3.3 million lines of software code and required 115 launches just to carry all of its components up to orbit."

Comments

Re:Yet another government boondoggle

[bobbied]

Ho boy... The fight is on.. You are wise to observe this, but I'm not so sure it's wise to bring it up..

It has done great damage

[amightywind]

ISS has done great damage to our space program. It is grossly expensive, and has starved funding for real exploration. Not to mention it forces us to share space with our sworn enemy Russia. I look forward to a Republican President and the launch of the SLS to set the program right and the restoration of a Cold War space program. End ISS now!