Dear all,

I bet you already talked a lot about this subject, the ISS. But
since I'm new around here, I would like to propose this issue.
In my opinion, the ISS is NASA's "white elephant"; I mean,
scientifically speaking this is a very controverse project and its future
aplications are very limited. Besides, NASA not only had always to pay the
largest fraction of the project, but also had to pay the Russian
part. This always provoked strong divisions inside NASA and in the
Congress and I always thought that the ISS was much more a political
project than a a scientific one, don't you think?
Neverthless, it was the ISS who was behind Goldin's demission, the
best NASA Administrator in the last 30 years!

And what do you think?

Regards.

Coordenador Nacional
The Planetary Society

Rua Miguel Bombarda, 260 4050-377 Porto PORTUGAL
URL: http://7mares.terravista.pt/tps_portugal e-mail: tpsportugal@...
Organizao espacial no governamental e sem fins lucrativos, fundada em
1980 por Carl Sagan, Louis Friedman e Bruce Murray.
Com mais de 100000 scios em mais de 140 pases, somos a maior agncia
espacial no governamental do mundo.

"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to
have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore and diverting myself in
now and then finding a smoother pebble on a prettier shell than ordinary,
whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

>
> Dear all,
>
> I bet you already talked a lot about this subject, the ISS. But

Yes, we have pretty much beaten it to death.

> since I'm new around here, I would like to propose this issue.

What do you mean by "propose this issue" ?

> In my opinion, the ISS is NASA's "white elephant"; I mean,

I certainly agree with that.

> scientifically speaking this is a very controverse project and its future

scientifically speaking the project has no value

> aplications are very limited. Besides, NASA not only had always to pay the
> largest fraction of the project, but also had to pay the Russian
> part. This always provoked strong divisions inside NASA and in the

Yes, and this is highly ironic. Lots of Americans working on ISS resented seeing money going to Russia. But they did not understand that the Russian
partricipation was the ONLY reason that ISS eve nexisted at all. Without Russia, all the American ISS workers would be unemployed.

> Congress and I always thought that the ISS was much more a political
> project than a a scientific one, don't you think?

Yes, I think there is little doubt about that. It is
purely a foreign relations excercise, to show goodwill
towards Russia, rewarding them for becoming a democracy.

> Neverthless, it was the ISS who was behind Goldin's demission, the
> best NASA Administrator in the last 30 years!
>

That sentence reads like an oxymoron.
ISS was very much Goldin's brainchild.
If Goldin caused his own demise,
how can he be best NASA Administrator in the last 30 years ?

Why do you even use the word "demission" (I think you mean demise) ? Goldin is resigning/retiring, he has not been dissmissed. I have not heard that his boss (the President) is dissatisfied with this performance.

Charles F. Radley