From: "Kim Hyatt" <kimharch@cut.net>

Which reminds me, no one has answered my question: Just exactly what purpose is the ISS supposed to serve, besides justifying jobs, politicians' rhetoric, and the infamous STS?

An often unspoken, but nonetheless part of the international aspect of the ISS is to keep Russian engineers and scientists employed. Otherwise there is fear they may be lost to "The Dark Side", meaning terrorism, black-market interestes, etc. Although not as adept or inclined as Kurt at instantly citing sources, I have read this many times in the past. The politicians fear a repeat of the spreading of nuclear technology to third-world, less than stable governments- some already have the nukes, this would give them the delivery system. __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com