If you live in the Salt Lake valley, and if it isn’t too
cloudy, you can watch the International Space Station pass by at 9:48 tonight.
It’s amazing to watch that small bright spot (it’s actually reflected sunlight)
zip through the sky, and to remember we puny humans put it there. US taxpayers
contributed more than $60 billion to build it. You can just about double that
amount if you factor in the cost of the space shuttle program we used to
assemble it. And we spend more than $3 billion every year to keep the thing
running. But we can’t use it; at least not without a ride there. Ever since
August of 2011, when we mothballed that same shuttle program, NASA has had no
way to put astronauts on the space station. Russia is happy to provide
transport, at $71 million per trip. When you’re the only game in town, you can
charge what you want.
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