On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 14:45:27 GMT, in a place far, far away, Fred J.
McCall made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:


:I'm only saying that it's easy relative to how difficult some think
:it, not in any absolute sense.

Well, that's the first time THAT has come out.

No, it isn't. You haven't been paying attention.

:Was ISS 'easy'?
:It largely seems so, by your definition, and yet it is an order of
:magnitude over the original budget estimates and still seems well
:short of the originally discussed capabilities.
:
:That has nothing to do with the intrinsic ease or difficulty of
:building space stations.

No? Then where is all the money going? It's easy, remember? Why did
it have to keep adding budget and schedule?

Because the purpose of the program was not to build a space station.
The purpose of the program was to provide full employment in certain
congressional districts.