Hi John,

I couldn't see any references to the Russian Federation "pulling the plug on the ISS". As I understood it they are keen to extend the lifespan of the ISS although the current agreement is that the station is burnt up in the atmosphere when the funding ends, which I believe is 2015 but hopefully may become 2020 or later.

Anatoly Zak

also had one of his articles published in May on the BBC website regarding the possibility of detaching the Russian modules from the ISS and adding the ball-shaped compartment with docking ports, see

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8064060.stm

73 Trevor M5AKA