Medical research on the ISS: will it payoff at last?

Almost three decades ago, the late G. Harry Stein wrote that the “By the year 2010, according to some very conservative forecasts and estimates, the space enterprise will create at least 1,900,000 jobs… Its annual contribution to the Gross National Product can be as large as $800 billion (1979 dollars) or about 10% of the GNP projected for that time.” Too bad it didn’t work out that way. The shuttle never lived up to the expectations of Stine and others and there is still no low-cost way to get payloads and people into space. Yet in spite of all the disappointments, there are signs that the long-awaited space manufacturing revolution may, finally be ready to take off.