The ISS is a test bed for orbital facilities that a number of civilian outfits are going to be lofting in the REAL near future. When civvie stations start going up, they will be doing so with the knowledged gained by having the ISS up there making the first steps, the first mistakes, and the first successes.

SS1 kicked open a door to getting civilians into space, and there will be others to follow. At some point, NASA will more on to other things, but the ISS right now represents the foothold that civilians will be stepping on when the first commercial/private space stations go up. If the rest of us are going to do it right in LEO, someone has to do it first. We won't have the ability to properly regulate the standards for civilian stations unless someone in an official capacity (read: NASA) sets those standards by knowing what can go right and go wrong.

Commercial space stations may sound like a pipe dream and it may be another 10 years before we see them, but they are coming. The momentum has gathered and its not slowing down.

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.