Stronger, lighter metals. New insight into the fundamental forces of nature. The possibility of such revolutionary advances has become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's main argument for building and operating the international space station. Supporters long have defended the 16-nation station program as a quantum scientific leap with unlimited potential to change our lives.
Critics counter that planned space-station research has few, if any, practical applications.
And, they argue, it isn't worth the money in any case. But I don't expect them to start pumping out Nobel Prizes any time soon. Destiny is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center aboard shuttle Atlantis no earlier than Feb. 6. Science won't begin in earnest before mid-March, when the first of Destiny's experiments is delivered to the station by shuttle Discovery. So far, only three experiments are under way on the station.