The ISS "UFO" -International Space Station to Launch a Paper Spaceplane to Land on Earth

We know that without an evil enemy to race against NASA's budget has fallen in the last
few decades, but recent plans make things sound desperate: they're going to launch a paper
plane - an astrogami spaceplane.

Luckily this isn't the last gasp before we see astronauts panhandling for change with signs
reading "Will mime Zero-G for rocket fuel", but an awesome expression of the childlike wonder
that space travel is meant to have.

There are a number of reasons for the origami space-plane, an 8 cm long heat-treated paper
construction, to be launched from the International Space Station to coast gently down to Earth.
"Proof of Principle" is one, and I'm sure "Research of alternative construction strategies" has been
typed on some terribly official looking document somewhere, but it's excellently clear that "Why
the hell not" plays a huge part in this. It's proof that some scientists aren't number-crunchers, or
desk-jobbers, but kids who found an amazingly exciting world to play in and were delighted to
discover they could get paid for it.

Full article here:

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/01/the-iss-ufo--in.html