[fla]

I find it funny that the United States Congress decides who takes part in the _international_ space station program.

[gizmo686]

Adding a new partner to the ISS requires unanimous agreement of all existing partners. As it happens, the US is the only one who opposes China, but, in concept, any of the participating space agencies (or their controlling government(s)) could block participation.

[arcticfox]

Maybe if the other members of the international community invested as much into it, they'd get an equal say. The split is something like NASA 80%, Russia 10%, rest of world, 10%. (Although it depends how you adjust for inflation)

[kuschku]

If you look at it based on what the contributed things are actually worth, it’s more like 50 25 25.

The US just happens to be very inefficient in space investments, because lots of politicians try to use it to get jobs into their states