>>Had they known, or admitted, the actual cost for the ISS when it was first proposed, it is very doubtful it would have ever been funded.<<

I dunno; Reagan wanted a station pretty bad. If a crystal ball had allowed a true picture of the cost, then I think NASA would've been sent back to the drawing board with orders to scale it down to a more affordable version.

>>Without the ISS where would manned space flight be today?<<

US flight? We'd be operating Shuttle on two-to-three week research missions, and that's about it.

>>Is there really any reason to fly the shuttle except to launch and service things like the HST?<<

Depends on whether there's a station on which to conduct research. And if there's a station, then something has to resupply it.

>>Would we be any closer to going back to the Moon, or on to Mars? I don’t think so.<<

Agreed. There's no national push to be there.

>>I don’t think there would be a manned space program at all. The shuttles would already be in museums. Manned space would be a thing of the past.<<

Nahhh. Manned spaceflight is a public demonstration of technological prowess. Politics would require that we continue flights, even if they don't seem to serve any truly useful purpose.

>>Perhaps the best use of the money would have been to develop and build a truly economical and safe single stage to orbit manned spacecraft. Then we could build a space station, or go back to the Moon, or on to Mars. With cheep safe access to space all kinds of opportunities would open up.<<

Agreed. NASA made a huge mistake with the way it approached Shuttle. Instead of conducting experimental programs to develop the technology required for CATS, it went straight for an operational system - akin to the Wright brothers trying to develop the DC-3 before they developed the Wright Flyer. That mistake has made it impossible to improve our lot in space travel without vast increases in NASA spending. And I'm afraid NASA will have to be the entity to develop CATS; I don't think private industry can muster the wherewithall to do it successfully.

>>But now we have what we have, and we better make it work, or we won’t have anything. There has to be a compelling reason to go back to the Moon, or on to Mars that the President, Congress, and the general public will accept. That is not the case now. We here, are convinced, but not most people. An astonishing number of people don’t think we need a space program at all.<<

True, because no one has made any real effort to show how space travel can benefit humankind. It comes across to the common citizen as just a technological stunt doing incomprehensible research - no relevance to everyday life. I'm hoping research on ISS will lead to a discovery that will have that relevance. It's a lot to hope for, but what else do we have?

-Kim-