Yeah, we might like to splash the ISS and just set off for Mars, but we really don’t have the skill set nor even the mission psychology to have a lot of confidence in that, because bad things do really happen, and the ultimate embarrassment would be a bad thing that we couldn’t handle. On Apollo 13, for example, we were pretty much just lucky.

“No I am suggesting it is incompetent that they have not found the root cause for the space suit issue.”

If I recall, the defective suit is still at the ISS awaiting a trip on a Dragon to bring it down to Earth for a real tear-down evaluation. And they obviously have a good idea what the problem is, and they have a backup suit, so I’m not sure why you are so concerned. Has this ever happened before? No, so it’s not like it’s a trend, it’s an anomaly.

Think about it this way – if they were on a trip to Mars and this happened, they would not cancel the mission because a piece of equipment has a 1-in-a-million failure, you replace it and continue on.

“The “fall backs” are from a safety standpoint laughable. ”

Again, since this hasn’t happened before in the decade of use the suit has had, if anything this validates the need for two-way cargo transportation so problems like this can be fully evaluated back on the ground. And they do have backups – other suits and the Russian suits if needed.

In fact this also points up the need for a U.S. crew transportation system that can carry more than just the minimum crew exchange, since one of the Commercial Crew vehicles could bring up engineers to do evaluations in space when they are doing crew exchanges – they would stay for a few days during the exchange, and ride back down with the crew going home.

So if anything this whole episode reinforces the need for better transportation options to & from space, and not that “space is too hard, so we might as well go home”.

The “fall backs” are from a safety standpoint laughable. Robert G Oler

Clear sustainable practical goals that last more than one administration would reduce the wandering waste. NASA HSF shouldn’t be at the whim of Congress well actually the science committees. It would better to have a Decadal Survey for HSF science and engineering just like we have for unmanned NASA programs. We should develop mission classes similar to the discover, explorer and flagship with equivalent goals. Focus and direction will reduce cost and waste not petty bickering.

“If this was a CVN do you really think the CO would stop flight ops because of this?”

Well to be accurate, this is delaying resupply of the ISS and is something that is not time-critical for the operation of the ISS. With a CVN, it exists to project power with aircraft, so of course they have to be able to launch in all conditions.

Operating the ISS is teaching us valuable lessons that we have to learn sooner or later, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather learn it in the least costly place in the universe, which is in LEO. Erring on the side of caution for something that has plenty of schedule buffer in not even worth discussing. Who cares if the Cygnus comes this week or next?

“NASA has a facility in space and how long ago was it that they almost drowned the Italian and they still dont have the space suit issue sorted out…how many people have been working on that?”

Yes, and they still don’t have a definitive answer, so they are creating new backups in case it happens again. Are you suggesting that we declare space “hard”, and give up? That safety really should be NASA’s #1 priority?

People are going to die in space in various ways, and the people that sign up to fly in space know that better than any of us. If we want to learn how to NOT die in space, the ISS is the only place to do that right now.

Not that everyone agrees, but I think we should be expanding humanity out into space. And right now the ISS is the best way to figure out how to do that, and overall the sustaining costs are not that high. If we can’t figure out how to keep a space station working in LEO, then we might as well shut down NASA and bulldoze KSC.

you obviously dont know what that word means. is embarrassing yourself something like a recreational activity for you? some time i think that’s the only explanation…

“Along with China they are our foremost adversaries in the world.”

And to show our resolve to resist the Chinese, the first thing we should do is go through your house and destroy all the products that say “Made In China”. That will show them, huh?

Yes, I do think we are getting value. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer keeps running smoothly and collecting data that will take years, if not decades, to analyze and tease apart the underlying secrets of the universe. The experience of building, maintaining, and operating the platform itself is essential for better, future activities. We are only now starting to see the fruits of the scientific labor, as shown by the recent uptick in cited publications referencing ISS research.