This afternoon I was finishing up the second volume of Astronautics, a two-volume history of the Space Age by Ted Spitzmiller published this fall by Apogee Books. A section about the future of the ISS and its overall viability states that NASA administration Michael Griffin had said that he would not have chose to build the ISS in its current configuration and orbit. Such statements, Spitzmiller writes, “call into question not only continued support for the ISS but funding for the return to the moon as requested by President Bush. Bush himself stated—perhaps with tongue-in-cheek—‘We plan to either hold an auction on Ebay [sic] or give it away to our international partners.'”
Had Bush really joked about selling the ISS on eBay? I didn’t recall Bush making such a statement, and Spitzmiller doesn’t include endnotes in the book. So I did a little research, and turned up this SpaceDaily piece that includes the quote used in the book. The problem is the article’s lede: “US President George W. Bush declared today that he had signed a rare Presidential Decree canceling any further expenditure of Federal funds on the US Space Shuttle program.” Not to mention the article’s publication date: April 1, 2005. Oops.
The irony of all this is that, in the long run, NASA might well turn over the ISS to its international partners, depending on how the Vision for Space Exploration and the agency’s finances unfold in the years to come. Selling it on eBay, though, still seems a little unlikely…
They wouldn’t get more that 500 bucks for it anyhow. Better to donate the ISS to charity for the tax write-off.
Fellow Space Station Watchers –
As Jeff said:
“The irony of all this is that, in the long run, NASA might well turn over the ISS to its international partners, depending on how the Vision for Space Exploration and the agency’s finances unfold in the years to come. Selling it on eBay, though, still seems a little unlikely…”
How would “turning over the Space Station” work, since the main control center is here in Houston with all the trained controllers and supporting engineering and contracts and …?? Would someone else (perhaps ESA, perhaps a consortium of universities) buy the control center and hire the engineers needed to run the Space Station? Would they contract for spares and training and all that you would need to keep the Station working? A space station is not like a car where you can buy it and drive it off of the lot. Then buy a new battery at an auto parts store.
What (if anything) was The President thinking when he suggested giving the Space Station away? He certainly had no vague idea of the depth of support needed to keep it working, and the years of training needed to support a space station.
Certainly we could decide to turn over the Space Station – but it would take many years. Even if you decided to abandon the depth of expertise from the controllers at the Marshall space center in Huntsville, and the knowledge of the engineers at the Kennedy space center that integrated the Station.
Charles
Here I was thinking that my recommendation to auction the space station was influential. Well, if it’s not policy, it’s at least as the butt of a joke, and now of media criticism. The current strategy is not much different than selling it–it’s deorbiting it without selling it.