To illustrate this, the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics went to three scientists for the discovery of the Higgs boson. It did not go to the dozens (hundreds) of researchers that also made significant contributions and it was never going to be awarded to the LHC collaboration.

Only if an astronaut on the ISS makes a major discovery in one of the three disciplines will they be eligible, together with the experiment designers. But the ISS itself will never get one.

I am not going to get into a debate on Ronaldus the Great or any other politican that is not related to space (trying to be on topic) except to say this.

You are in my view free to have your own opinion (one of the joys of “us” winning)…but I will say this.

In my life so far I have been privileged to met a reasonable number of national politicians AND have worked in a few national campaigns. So far in my adult life there are three politicans who “knew who they were”…Ronald Reagan, Howard Dean and John McCain of 00…things change of course and McCain of 08 knew quite less about “who he was” then the McCain of 00 did.

The world is a safer place in my view because Ronald Reagan was “on watch” in the period from 81-88…

Robert G. Oler

Reminds me of an old Cold War joke:

American and Russian argue over political freedomes.

American: ” I can go out on the street and yell ‘Reagan is an idiot’, I’m free to do it.”

Russian: “In Russia we have all those same rights.”

American: “You can’t be serious, howe can I believe you?”

Russian: “Sure, watch me go out on the street in Moscow and yell, ‘Reagan is an idiot’. We have the same rights as you do.

One might argue that the USSR got into the Buran/Energia shuttle/launcher system to compete with our STS. The cost of their system (regardless of the technical achievement) was so high that at least in part it participated in the end of the USSR. So in the end “space” may have a lot to do with the end of the USSR…

Jim Oberg wrote @ November 23rd, 2009 at 10:21 am
With respect to a veteran cold warrior; would you not agree that ASTP; MIR-Shuttle and the ISS are not progressive steps in trust building?..

Jim can speak for himself but I would be surprised if he agreed…I dont.

ASTP had nothing to do with trust…and everything to do with showmanship…and some internal state politics. After it was over no one outside of the crew and a few folks at the various control centers said… (ok there might have been someone…maybe Charlie Precourt) “wow I trust Ivan more” or “I trust those Yankees more”) ..

and it had nothing to do with the general state of US/USSR relationships. By the time ISS came around the “Trust” was already there…other wise we would not have had the joint missions/build to start with.

Nor is the squabbling internal to ESA (and it produces no more spinoffs then NASA does and those are very few) compare to trying to work peace between say the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority. Not even in the same ballpark.

What ended the cold war was Ronaldus the Great pushing Ivan until his economy fell apart and then being a very gracious victor. Space, at least human spaceflight had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Robert G. Oler