From the “Ummmm… Yah… Umkay… I’m gonna have to ask you what you did with the money” files… It seems that ISS (the orbity one, not the IDSy one) is having a bit of an issue with the combination of hardware and software necessary to keep it’s altitude adjusted correctly. You see, ISS was designed to be easily reached from Russia’s higher latitude launch facility easliy and well, lets just say that much like the Shuttle, the design was compromised by a few too many congresscritters. Due to it’s low orbit, it is (a) in the path of lots of debris, (b) frequently needs to be boosted as it experiences atmospheric drag.

And… now they’ve got problems. The shuttle’s not flying quite as often as it was supposed to (one flight every 2 weeks - per airframe - was the design spec), the on-board engines were tested for the first time this week since installation in 2000 and don’t work, the Progress freight module from Russia has engines which are incompatible with the software onboard the ISS and can only be fired by Russian ground control who can only see the station on 10 of 16 daily orbits.

Just to re-cap, we all know about the congress pork barrelling related to the shuttle (they manufacture external booster tanks in the high-tech areospace hub known as Louisiana?), and well, who can really make a warranty claim if you don’t test the damn received product for more than 5 years, and is anyone surprised that life safety software relating to a multi-billion dollar investment doesn’t work right?

Sigh. I was lied to as a child. I want my orbital spa, I want my vacation on the moon, I want my food in pill format, I want my aircar, I want my 20 hour work week, I want my free energy. And I’d like it all when it was promised - back in the 90s. Thank-you-very-much.

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