My house is 11 years old. We didn't cut corners when we built and choose quality appliances and materials. In the past year, both garbage disposals started leaking. The dishwasher discharge hose cracked and leaked. The copper plumbing is starting to spring leaks. The furnace needed a replacement combustion blower years ago.
I used to work for a major printing company. There was constant scheduled maintenance and repairs to the printing presses, and they still needed to be completely overhauled after 10 years.
One of my cars is 11 years old and the alternator died last weekend leaving us stranded on the side of the road 100 miles from home.
What does all this have to do with the International Space Station (ISS)? Plenty. The ISS is 10 years old and we haven't finished building it yet. Things like tubes and hoses and fans and pumps and many electronics have a half-life of 10 to 15 years. So the ISS is going to start needing major repairs and it isn't even completely built yet. Whoever was in charge should have insisted that the engineers come up with a plan that it could be built and doing whatever it is it is supposed to do in the first 2 years. And if the engineers didn't know how to do that, or the funding wasn't there to do it, then they should have waited.
Bye for now, Doug
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