American politicians attacked the International Space Station project at a
meeting of the House of Representatives last week.
California representative Dana Rohrbacher called the collaboration with
Russia 鈥渇atally flawed鈥� because Russia has a 鈥渃orrupt and incompetent鈥�
government, while James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Science Committee,
belittled Russian assurances to stay on schedule: 鈥淭hey鈥檝e broken every other
commitment and missed every other deadline.鈥� The White House last week approved
plans for a $90 million modification to NASA鈥檚 space shuttle so that it
can boost the orbit of the space station if Russia fails to meet its schedules
to do this.