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Article: Scrap the space station.(International Space Station should be cancelled)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- November 14, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Cancelling the International Space Station would make it possible to adopt a more rational approach to space flight
IT HAS taken 14 years to move from drawing-board to launch-pad. Along the way, supporters of the International Space Station have tried and discarded various justifications: an orbiting factory, a demonstration of American technological supremacy, a staging-post on the way to Mars and, most recently, an exemplar of international co-operation in space. With Russia's contribution to the project fast dwindling to nothing, the station is now losing even symbolic value. Since it has never had much scientific value (see page 149), should it be going ahead ...