On the CNN web site there's a story that begins as follows: ========== CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- NASA and its space partners Friday approved a scaled-down International Space Station with fewer astronauts and less science so the United States can meet a 2010 deadline for ending shuttle flights, a top NASA official said. Space agencies in Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan gave unanimous approval to a NASA plan that means the orbiting platform, now about half completed, will never become the beehive of scientific and commercial research once envisaged. ========== The direct URL is http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/07/23/space.station.reut/index.html I don't know how this might affect ARISS, but it doesn't sound very encouraging. 73 - Kay N3KN