[GreyMountainReagan]

Sorry, but the space station exists to give the shuttle something to do and the shuttle exist to build the space station.

Really, what does the space station provide, even to space exploration.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Space station exists to learn to live, construct and function in space long term.

You cannot do that on the ground.

I am in no mood to debate it today.
Simply to celebrate this day as a milestone.

[Young Werther]

A Paradigm shift is called for. NASA is a scientific and engineering operations. If we are going to "commercialize space" then we need to draw from the business and marketing majors.

For example, a senator’s NASA coordinator told me,, that NASA intends to call the ISS a "Research Lab". Sounds like Byrd Station in Antarctica. Doesn't sound commercial.

Call the ISS a "truck stop" on the Earth Lunar highway and now a different mindset is established. Now fly the External Tanks into orbit instead of throwing them away. They would be built and paid for by Exxon Mobile which would be the tank farm at the truckstop. Additional Tanks would carry the excess fuel to the tank farm and then become the strip mall for the small businesses that surround a truck stop. Maintenance sheds means that a Fedex space truck could buy fuel, travel up to that Dish satellite that's not working and return it to the "tank" at the truck stop which is a maintenance shop. Fix or update the satellite and return it to geosynchronus orbit, (the delta v is much less that a new satellite being launched from the ground). Give entrepreneurs a chance and they'll get us there.

The expandable space habs would increase the size of the sleping acilities so the space truck drivers would have a place to sleep before their next trip

The Cargo Vehicles to be used for the Earth Lunar highway would be funded by FEDEX, UPS or Greyhound depending on what they’re carrying.

The lunar truck stop would have the same makeup and the lander/launcher for Lunar surface to Lunar orbit could be owned by SW Airlines or Delta or whomever.

This concept should be expanded using standard entrepreneurial models and the likes of Gates, Rogers, Allen, Bigelow, Musk and Rutan and his fellow aerospace weenies!

Provide a 105% tax credit for any company that invests in space and guess what the truck stop will be up and running in no time

[BlazingArizona]

Sorry, but the space station exists to give the shuttle something to do and the shuttle exist to build the space station.

Now that construction is finished, it's time to move the ISS to a more useful place, such as lunar orbit.