International Space Station - Purpose

Purpose

According to the original Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and RSA, the International Space Station was intended to be a laboratory, observatory and factory in space. It was also planned to provide transportation, maintenance, and act as a staging base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids. In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given additional roles of serving commercial, diplomatic, and educational purposes.

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Famous quotes containing the word purpose:

    I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgement, will probably for ever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I ... am in favour of the race to which I belong having the superior position.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    There are a sort of men whose visages
    Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,
    And do a willful stillness entertain,
    With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
    Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit,
    As who should say, “I am Sir Oracle,
    And when I ope my lips let no dog bark!”
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    With the breakdown of the traditional institutions which convey values, more of the burdens and responsibility for transmitting values fall upon parental shoulders, and it is getting harder all the time both to embody the virtues we hope to teach our children and to find for ourselves the ideals and values that will give our own lives purpose and direction.
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