Greg Ganske: “Mr. Chairman, the International Space Station is a failure and it is a misuse of taxpayer money. In 1983, Ronald Reagan…”

“Mr. Chairman, the International Space Station is a failure and it is a misuse of taxpayer money. In 1983, Ronald Reagan first presented the idea of the Space Station and NASA predicted the cost would be $8 billion. Between 1985 and 1993, we spent $11.4 billion on this project and never sent anything to orbit. So we started over and, voila, we had the International Space Station. In 1993, NASA told us that the station would cost $17.4 billion to build, would be completed in the year 2002, and would be operational for 10 years. They told us the total operational costs from construction to decommissioning would be $72.3 billion. We were presented with a new program that would cost twice as much and that would last one-third as long. And this was a good idea? As my colleagues can see from my chart, since 1993 we have spent more than $2 billion every year. With funding provided in this bill, we will have spent $25.4 billion since 1995. Construction is 4 years behind schedule and is expected to cost the U.S. around $26 billion. That is 50 percent above the original quote. The United States is expected to pay 74 percent of construction costs. If this Station is completed and if it becomes operational, the United States is scheduled to pay 76 percent of operational costs. And we call that an International Space Station?”