[zaphod3000]

My gripe is that the ISS will continue to overwhelm any other NASA program. As the article states, extending the ISS will draw funds away from the manned Moon/Mars missions as well as the unmanned program. To me, circling the Earth every 90 minutes isn’t that exciting. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge space buff (I have about 50 books on the subject and as a kid woke up in the middle of the night to see the moonwalks).

I am afraid that the lack of visible exploration by man (to go where no man has gone before!) will doom the space program as a whole, and will make it easier to cancel completely.

[eclecticEel]

The ISS has never been anything other than a welfare program for Boeing and Northrup. We should be spending money for a real space goal - expanding to the Moon and Mars - instead of spending billions to go around in circles.

Not since the close of Apollo has NASA had a goal, and the lack of direction shows. The shuttle was a waste, the ISS was a waste, all the other programs that never went anywhere before being canceled early *cough, Venture Star* were also a waste.