Predictably, NASA is wussing out on ISS in the aftermath of the Columbia disaster. So much for boldly storming the heavens.
It was bad enough that the crew was going to be cut from seven to three, with those three spending nearly all of their time troubleshooting the hardware. Now, we’ll have two guys up there without even enough time to do a proper job of that (and it will indeed be “guys”, since NASA won’t have the nerve to brave the innuendo a one-on-one mixed crew would spawn).
ISS is looking more and more like a boondoggle all the time (as if that weren’t obvious already). I’m no big fan of ISS or Shuttle, but we’ve got them, and they’re currently all we’ve got, so let’s get back to business.
If the Shuttle program were like the Osprey program, we’d be flying again already.