Space Shuttle

The NY Times has a long editorial today on the space shuttle:

The decision to proceed with the launch anyway — made by Michael Griffin, the administrator of NASA — was a gutsy call. It even seems reasonable, if you accept the constraints he was operating under. But if you believe, as we do, that the benefits to be gained from further shuttle flights are minimal, this looks like an unnecessary risk to the spacecraft and to the astronauts who will be riding in it.

16 more shuttle flights will be needed to complete the International Space Station.... Which seems like a waste. What's it doing up there? I mean, do you know how many astronauts are currently living in the station? Can you name them, or name any experiment now taking place on it, or any scientific result that has come from it? Cost: $125B, according to this ESA site. For what, a few studies on extended weightlessness? And we can't find $5-7B for the Next Linear Collider?