Florida Today article on Skylab B

Derek Lyons wrote:
Charles Buckley wrote:

In what way? Are you claiming that ISS did not recycle a lot of
Freedom equipment, or are you saying that ISS includes Freedom
costs?


Both. Some equipment was close to being ready, but nothing like the
amount of major structure that the S-IVB contributed to Skylab. Nor
does the ISS use the same control room as the Shuttle, unlike Skylab,
which also incurs greater costs. Nor did Skylab require an expensive
midstream redesign to include changed political goals... The number
of difference mount, and the similarities shrink as you open your
mind.



And if you look over at the other post on here, you'll see all the
parts they did have fed over from Freedom. The structure is one of the
cheaper cost items. Most of the costs are in the design. Materials
selection. Standards definition. Parts selection. RFP for parts.
Software definition and initial design. All those came over or gave a
huge start on ISS.


Just because you don't like the comparson, does not mean it
is invalid. ISS piggybacked off a lot of design/hardware from
Freedom and did not have to start from scratch.


Nowhere did I say I did not like the comparison. Nor did I say ISS
started from scratch, so take your strawmen elsewhere.



And you take yours that way. Pointing out that one side used
leveraged hardware without drawing any comparison to the other
is more than a bit misleading. ISS had assembled management,
designs, hardware, and goal all prior to it's start. It was much
further along when it got the greenlight than Skylab in every
single aspect.


Take your pick on how to draw the lines, but ISS is more
expensive either as a stand-alone or as a leveraged piece of
hardware - even allowing for inflation.


It's hardly suprising that a more capable station is more expensive,
even allowing for inflation.


Umm. more capable in what way? Arguably, it is not going to
have nearly the manned capacity in terms of science as Skylab.
The crewed responsibility is running the station.