[Telepathic Intruder]

Both the ISS and the shuttle program were expensive setbacks to space exploration. The shuttle could do nothing except haul cargo to and from low earth orbit. The ISS is parked in a useless orbit, serving only as a zero gravity laboratory. Where has any of that gotten us?

[Jagermonster]

I know that the ISS could have been far more useful in another orbit, but that doesn't mean we didn't get anything from it. Some examples of things developed on or for the ISS: (1) Small scale water purification systems; (2) eye tracking for laser eye surgery; (3) robot arm (Canadian arm) refined and used in surgical applications.

As with the earlier space program, it isn't so much the doing things in space that has practical benefits, but the problems that get solved to allow us to do things in space. For example, MRI was initially developed to quality check rocket booster nozzles to prevent unplanned kabooms, but, further refined, is now used to see what your insides look like.