There are bad ideas, and then there are true historic stinkers.
Put the International Space Station in that second category.
Today, the most underachieving machine NASA ever dreamed up got
into trouble again, when computers that control the station's
oxygen, water supply and orientation failed. With the three-man
station crew just joined by the seven visiting astronauts of the
space shuttle Atlantis, the specter of Apollo 13 on a grand
scale with 10 astronauts in danger this time instead of merely
three immediately arose. The good news is, the shuttle and
station astronauts are in nowhere near the danger the 1970 lunar
crew was; in fact, they're not in much danger at all. The bad
news is, the station has once again proven itself unworthy of
all of the time, money and attention that has been lavished on
it over the last two decades. It's no surprise that there are a
lot of things that can go wrong with a machine like the space
station and no shame when some of them do. The orbiting complex
is 240 ft. long at i