What do Physicists Know Anyway? (September 25, 2004)

    Nature reports that if the International Space Station's caretaker crew of 2 can't repair the balky Russian-built oxygen generator by the end of October, when the crew is scheduled to be replaced, ISS may have to be abandoned and mothballed. To then "recommision" it might be impossible or so costly as to be impractical.

The American Physical Society's Bob Park suggests, "NASA might be privately relieved.  With every day that passes it becomes more evident that the $US 100 billion boondoggle is, as Bob Park described it in Congressional testimony in 1997, the "greatest single obstacle to the continued conquest of space."  From the beginning, the most expensive science project in history was  scorned by the scientists.  In 1991, Presidents of 57 scientific societies opposed the orbiting laboratory.  APS President Nikko Bloembergen, summed it up, 'microgravity is of microimportance.'"

Not to worry, the Bush administration continues on its merry way ignoring the assessments of leading US physicists that the untested missile defence system won't work so nothing much has changed; squandering billions on stupidities seems to be the order of the day.