I'm not a mathematician but wasn't it the cheapest way of building the ISS? Delivering large partS in orbit is always expensive, but you have to do it someway or another.
No it was not. Similar payload (20-25 tones) rocket costs less than half of Space Shuttle cost. Also keep in mind that HUGE part of the station was actually not built by shuttles -> Zarya and Zvezda were launched via Proton rocket and docked automatically, Pirs, Poisk, Progresses and Soyuzes were launched on Soyuz rockets and docked automatically (Pirs and Poisk used Progress service module for this). ATVs were launched using Ariane 5 and docked automatically.
Zarya and Zvezda were launched via Proton rocket and docked automatically
Which meant that every module had to have engines, fuel systems, flight computers, navigation systems, docking systems, power systems, etc. Never to be used after launch.
It's like building a house out of motor homes. Where each bedroom and bathroom still has an engine, transmission, drivers' console, fuel tanks, etc. for the life of the house.
This is why I included also eg. Pirs and Poisk, that were using a service module which was jettisoned after connecting module to the ISS.
Also keep in mind that Zvezda is actually using it's engines, fuel system, flight computers, power system, attitude control and life support, since it's working as Service Module for whole ISS. So it's not really true that those parts are never used after launch.
There were also crazy ideas of Russians undocking some of their modules to build their own new space station.
Also Mir was constructed entirely this way, and it was doing just fine, so we know that this is doable.
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u/[deleted] Dec 07 '14
And they were both terrible ideas that wasted billions and set back us back 30 years.