Word: nasa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Today, the most underachieving machine NASA ever dreamed up got into trouble again, when computers that control the station?s oxygen, water supply and orientation failed. With the three-man station crew just joined by the seven visiting astronauts of the space shuttle Atlantis, the specter of Apollo 13 on a grand scale - with 10 astronauts in danger this time instead of merely three - immediately arose. The good news is, the shuttle and station astronauts are in nowhere near the danger the 1970 lunar crew was; in fact, they're not in much danger at all. The bad news...
...that can go wrong with a machine like the space station - and no shame when some of them do. The orbiting complex is 240 ft. long at its maximum, weighs 471,444 lbs. and encloses 15,000 ft. of habitable space. It is being built and maintained principally by NASA, the European Space Agency and the space agencies of Russia, Japan and Canada, an arrangement that spreads the costs and the burdens but also diffuses the responsibility. If your SUV occasionally needs a trip to the shop, imagine what it takes to keep a complicated leviathan like this going...
...gravity environment of Earth and generally pay for itself many times over. Close to two decades past deadline and now carrying a projected $100 billion price tag, it has not returned a lick of good science - nor is it likely to. Meantime, it's diverting billions from NASA's budget that could better be spent on the agency's brilliantly successful unmanned space program, as well as its promising efforts to return astronauts to the moon and eventually explore Mars...
...Charbonneau searches for extrasolar planets by looking for signs of planets crossing in front of stars outside our solar system. Through a series of NASA-funded telescopes located in southern California that monitor 10,000 stars at a time, Charbonneau and his researchers scour the data, measuring the brightness of the stars. If a star is dark, it could be due to an eclipse from a planet in orbit around...
...While real space travel for real astronauts is being threatened by NASA budget cuts, the wallet-challenged traveler can rest assured that the Shuttle Launch Experience is cleared to go. The ride, along with all other attractions at the visitor center, is funded through ticket, food and souvenir sales...