On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 08:06:30 GMT, zadoc wrote:

I don't have time at the moment to chase down construction and
maintainence cost for the joint US/Russian space station but I do know
that many think it hasn't justified its construction and the money
could have been far better spent elsewhere.

Don't worry. Under the neocons the US cannot even get a
dependable payload up there anymore it seems.

And who canceled the SCSC after it was almost finished?
http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-016.html (scroll down)
Who stopped almost all of the LASER ignition facility
(National Ignition Facility) construction & research?
http://www.aip.org/fyi/2005/100.html

WHY does a certain party so hate science & things that
are not faith-based (not counting wars here, folks)?

OTOH It looks like China's plans for a manned Lunar base
may have slipped out to 2020 ...
http://www.astronautix.com/articles/china.htm

BTW, China just had a record year .... IIRC Their
government just collected more in taxes (Communism, you see)
than the neocons spent all year on their wars ... just barely.
--
Cliff